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J/3 


OT  MAS, 


'^fRSt'k* 


DATE  DUE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 
LIBRARY 


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History  of  Sheep  Husband7y  in 
Massachttsetts. 


LECTURE 

BY 

Hon.  JAMES  S.  GRINNELL 

OF   GREENFIELD. 


Delivered  at  the  Public  Winter  Meeting  of  the  Massachusetts 

State  Board  of  Agriculture,  at  Boston, 

December  2,  1891. 


With  Accompanying  Discussion. 


BOSTON : 

WRIGHT  &  POTTER  PRINTING  CO.,  STATE  PRINTERS, 

18  Post  Office  Square. 

1892. 


43  (i.  3 


HISTORY  OF,  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 


BY    HON.    JAMES    S.    GRINNELL  'OF    GREENFIELD. 


The  8ul)ject  of  sheep  hu.sbandiy,  always  one  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  the  whole  farming  community,  seems  again  to 
be  exciting  general  interest  and  attention  in  our  State,  and, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  would  be  aided 
and  advanced  by  a  somewhat  extended  consideration  in  a 
paper  which  I  was  directed  to  prepare  and  bring  l)efore  this 
meeting,  and  by  the  full  discussion  which  is  to  follow. 
'  In  all  ages  the  sheep  has  been  a  prominent  representative 
of  rural  husbandry,  profitable  and  eminentl}^  respectable, 
from  the  time  that  Abel,  the  first  keeper  of  sheep,  made  to 
the  Lord  an  acceptable  offering  of  the  firstlings  of  his 
flock  —  early  lambs  ;  and  many  hundreds  of  years  later  that 
great  farmer  and  ffock-master.  Job,  reckoned  among  his 
stock  fourteen  thousand  sheep. 

Originally  neither  the  flesh  of  the  sheep  nor  of  any  other 
animal  was  used  as  an  article  of  food.  According  to  Bibli- 
cal history,  only  a  vegetable  diet  was  permitted,  — the  fruit 
of  every  tree  in  the  garden  of  Eden  (with  one  exception) 
"and  everj^  herb  of  the  field;"  so  that  for  about  sixteen 
hundred  years,  till  after  the  deluge,  no  sheep  were  killed  to 
be  eaten.  It  was  only  after  Noah  had  stei)ped  forth  from 
the  ark  and  offered  his  sacrifice  that  the  Divine  permission 
was  given,  "  Every  moving  thing  that  liveth  shall  be  meat 
for  you  ;  even  as  the  green  herb  have  I  given  you  all  things." 
From  this  time  on  the  flesh  of  the  sheep  was  not  only  an 
acce})table  oftering  to  the  Almighty,  but  as  an  article  of 
food  is  frequently  mentioned  in  Holy  Writ,  from  the  dress- 
ing of  a  single  lamb  in  very  early  days  down  to  the  mag- 
nificence of  Solomon,  who,  besides  his  established  character 
for  wisdom  generally,  manifested  an  exceeding  good  taste 


and  consideration  for  his  household  by  having  a  hundred 
sheep  slaughtered  for  their  daily  maintenance  and  enjojnnent. 

Sheep  prol)a])ly  found  their  way  into  Europe  by  the 
Hellespont  with  the  early  civilization  of  its  inhabitants,  and 
after  a  long  interval  into  Italy  ;  they  were  early  cultivated 
in  Spain,  having  prol)ably  been  introduced  there  from  Africa 
long  before  the  founding  of  Rome.  The  more  northern  part 
of  Europe  was  a  great  forest,  unfavorable  to  the  growing 
of  sheep,  and  their  numbers  seem  always  to  have  been  small. 
The  Celtic  tribes  })aid  more  regard  to  the  ox  than  to  the 
sheep,  and  the  flocks  of  the  early  inhal)itants  of  Europe 
never  equalled  those  of  the  Syrian  and  other  Asiatic  shep- 
herds. 

As  the  sheep  of  this  country  (except  the  Merinos)  mostly 
came  from  England,  it  would  be  curious  and  interesting  to 
trace  their  introduction  to  that  country.  Unfortunately  this 
is  shrouded  in  the  darkness  which  envelops  the  British 
Islands  prior  to  their  invasion  and  conquest  l)y  the  Romans. 
During  that  dynasty,  however,  wool  was  spun  and  woven 
and  woollen  fal)rics  were  made  in  Britain ;  and  in  course  of 
time  the  woollens  of  Winchester,  which  were  said  to  rival 
the  spider's  web  in  fineness,  attained  the  highest  reputation, 
and  maintained  it  for  centuries ;  but  there  is  no  record  of 
the  shee})  from  whose  fleece  these  were  spun  and  woven. 
It  is  believed  that  the  Hibernians  had  from  the  Phoenicians 
acquired  the  art  of  s})inning  and  weaving  long  before  the 
invasion  of  the  Romans  upon  England,  and  while  the  peojile 
of  the  larger  island  Avere  still  clad  in  the  skins  of  wild  ani- 
mals, and  of  oxen  and  sheep,  after  their  untraceable  intro- 
duction. From  that  time  to  the  improvement  of  sheep  and 
the  settlement  of  this  country  is  a  long  interval.  Either 
the  sheep  Avere  not  very  early  introduced  here,  or  the  chron- 
iclers of  that  day  did  not  see  flt  to  make  any  special  mention 
of  them;  horses,  cattle,  and,  strangely,  goats,  are  much 
earlier  and  oftener  noticed  than  sheep. 

In  1629  permission  was  given  to  ship  from  Southampton 
one  hundred  and  forty  cattle,  horses,  sheep  and  goats ; 
how  many  were  landed\  if  any,  does  not  ap[)ear.  'Tuly, 
l()ol,  from  Barnstable  in  Devonshire  were  shi})])cd  eight 
heifers,  a  calf  and  five  sheep.     June   15,  1633,  thirty-four 


Dutch  sheep  were  hinded,  forty  having  l)een  h)st  at  sea. 
Ill  the  same  year  these  or  others  are  recorded  as  having 
been  carried  onto  an  ishmd  in  Boston  har])or  as  a  phice  of 
protection  against  wolves.  In  1635  eighty-eight  Dutch 
ewes  were  In-ought  in,  vahied  at  fifty  shillings  each.  July, 
1633,  an  order  was  made  that  no  sheep  should  be  exported. 
May  14,  1648,  the  following  order  was  made  by  the  General 
Court :  ' '  that  forasmuch  as  the  keeping  of  sheep  tends  to 
the  good  and  benefit  of  the  country,  if  they  were  carefully 
preserved,  henceforth  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  man  to  keep 
sheep  on  any  common,  accounting  five  sheep  to  one  great 
l)east.  And  if  any  dog  shall  kill  any  sheep,  the  owner  shall 
either  hang  his  dog  forthwith,  or  pay  double  damages  for 
the  sheep.  And  if  any  dog  has  been  known  to  course  or 
bite  any  sheep  before,  not  l)eing  set  on,  and  his  owner  had 
notice  thereof,  then  he  shall  both  hang  his  dog  and  pay  for 
the  sheep." 

In  1634 an  order  was  passed  l)y  the  court :  "that  whereas, 
the  country  was  in  great  straits  in  respect  of  clothing,  and 
the  most  likeliest  Avay  tending  to  sui)ply  in  that  respect  is 
the  raising  and  keeping  of  sheep  within  our  jurisdiction,  it 
is  therefore  ordered  and  enacted  liy  this  court,  that  after  the 
publication  hereof  no  person  or  persons  whatsoever  shall 
transport  any  ewes  or  ewe  lambs  out  of  this  jurisdiction  to 
any  foreign  place  or  port,  upon  the  penalty  of  the  forfeiture 
of  five  pounds  for  every  ewe  or  ewe  lami)  so  transported." 

In  1652  Charlestown  had  as  many  as  four  hundred  sheep  ; 
and  in  1658  John  Josselyn  wrote,  in  the  account  of  his  two 
voyages  to  the  Colonies,  of  there  being  eight  hundred  at 
Black  Point  in  this  State,  and  again  mentions  their  having 
great  store  of  sheep  in  the  colony. 

Twenty  years  later,  Sir  Edward  Eandolph,  commissioner 
of  the  Crown,  wrote  in  his  official  correspondence  that 
"  New  England  abounded  in  sheep."  By  successive  impor- 
tations, care  in  breeding  and  preserving,  forbidding  exporta- 
tions  and  the  killing  of  sheep  as  much  as  possible,  they 
multiplied  greatly,  they  l)ecame  abundant  on  the  commons, 
and  were  watched  and  guarded  by  a  shepherd.  Herding,  now 
so  successfully  practised  by  the  most  eminent  sheep  grower  in 
the  State,  was  first  used  in  this  country  in  Rowley,  where 


permis.sjon  was  oranted  to  erect  .sheep  ii'ates,  or  lengths  of 
movable  fence  to  be  set  up  at  night  as  protection  against 
wolves  and  dogs. 

Clothing. 

Next  to  food  and  shelter,  the  great  exigency  of  the  early 
settlers  was  of  course  clothing  sufficient  not  only  to  cf)ver 
their  nakedness,  but  to  keep  them  warm  in  this  cold  climate. 
In  this  respect,  as  in  some  others,  they  were  content  to 
receive  from  the  customs  of  their  l)arl)arous  neighbors  sug- 
gestions which  were  not  witliout  use  to  them  in  their  pecul- 
iar circumstances.  The  original  clothing  of  the  Indians  was 
from  the  furs  and  skins  of  wild  animals.  Much  skill  w^as 
evinced  in  the  dressing  of  buffalo,  deer,  elk  and  other  skins 
for  that  })ur})()se  ;  for  external  wear  they  w^ere  prepared  with 
the  hair  or  avooI  on,  and  for  under  garments  the  smaller 
skins  were  made  into  a  kind  of  ' '  chamois  "  leather  by  remov- 
ing the  hair  and  dressing  them  with  the  brains  of  the  animal, 
which  rendered  them  very  soft  and  pliable.  A  squaw^  would 
thus  prepare  eight  or  ten  skins  in  a  day.  Morton  sa3^s  the 
Indians  "  made  their  skins  into  very  good  leather,  making 
them  '  })hime '  and  soft ;  the  moose  skins  they  commonly 
dress  l)are  and  make  them  wondrous  white  ;  the  moccasins 
and  leggings  were  usually  made  from  the  moose  skins." 
The  colonists  made  much  use  of  these  materials,  which  com- 
l)orted  Avell  with  their  rugged  mode  of  life  and  the  severity  of 
the  climate.  Indeed,  they  were  not  unaccustomed  to  the  use 
of  simihir  materials  in  their  native  country  ;  for  in  England, 
even  in  that  day,  leather  dressed  as  buff  and  in  other  styles, 
and  worn  as  doublets,  breeches  or  vests,  formed  no  incon- 
siderable part  of  the  clothing  of  some  classes,  and  for  some 
purposes  was  w^orn  by  the  nobility.  These  sol)er  and  frugal 
materials  continued  in  use  till  after  the  era  of  independence, 
and  garments  wholly  or  in  part  of  buckskin  or  other  leather 
could  l)e  found  in  the  wardrol)es  of  even  the  wealthy  men  of 
that  day.  Deerskins  dressed  w'ere  then  Avorth  from  three 
shillings  and  sixpence  to  seven  shillings  each. 

In  1747,  Joseph  Calef,  a  leather  dresser  of  Charlestown, 
was  rol)bed  ])y  burglars,  who  took  a  variety  of  sheepskins 
dressed  for  clothing,  some  cloth  colored  for  lireeches  very 


much  upon  the  red,  others  were  elotli  colored  thin  skins  for 
gloves.  In  the  "Boston  Evening  Post,"  February,  1748, 
are  advertised  "two  fulling  mills  for  the  fulling  of  leather." 

As  fast  as  the  settlers  could  produce  the  materials  and 
provide  the  men  and  means,  they  had  spun  and  woven  for 
clothing  flax  of  their  own  growing,  the  cultivation  of  Avhich 
they  had  commenced  early ;  cotton  from  Barl)adoes,  and 
wool  imported  from  Malaga  and  some  other  ports.  All  these 
textile  goods  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  were  spun  and 
woven  and  dyed  in  the  homestead  ;  every  house  had  a  spin- 
ning-wheel, and  every  other  house  a  loom.  The  price  of 
spinning  worsted  or  linen  we  are  told  was  usually  two  shillings 
per  pound;  for  knitting  coarse  yarn  stockings,  half  a  crown 
a  pair ;  for  weaving  linen  half  a  yard  wide,  ten  to  twelve 
pence  per  yard.  The  cost  of  manufacturing  eighteen  pounds 
of  wool  into  twenty  yards  of  cloth  was  $21.24,  or  $1.06  per 
yard  three-quarters  Avide.  In  the  earlier  days  very  little 
cloth  was  on  sale,  it  was  largely  consumed  in  the  timiily  or 
used  in  liarter  with  the  neighl^ors  for  other  necessities ;  and 
almost  the  only  attainable  way  of  getting  at  a  price  is  to  read 
some  dead  man's  inventor3^  In  1671  worsted  was  worth 
sixty-six  pence  per  pound,  and  woollen  thirty-two  pence. 
Much  linsey-woolsey  was  made  for  men's  wear,  of  linen 
warp  and  wool  tilling,  valued  at  eighteen  cents  per  yard. 
Homespun  garments  or  cloth  were  seldom  inventoried ;  a 
piece  of  homespun  is  valued  at  three  and  sixpence  in  1681, 
justifying  a  statement  of  a  letter  writer  of  that  day,  that  in 
1675  "there  is  no  cloth  made  w^orth  four  shillings  and  no 
linen  over  two  shillings  and  sixpence  per  yard  ;  "  perhaps 
not,  but  it  covered  a  race  unsurpassed  for  bravery  and 
fortitude.  I  might  perhaps  truthfully  say  that  they  were 
men  of  great  understanding,  for  among  the  outfits  provided 
for  the  colony  in  1629,  "a  great  store  of  shoes  is  ordered  of 
neats  leather  of  sizes  fi'om  ten  to  thirteen." 

Domestic  manufactures  began  early,  especially  spinning 
and  weaving ;  for  in  1639  home-made  cloth  is  found  in 
Peter  Branch's  inventory,  and  appears  in  increasing  quanti- 
ties, though  probably  insufficient  to  keep  pace  with  the 
increasing  population,  for  in  1(340  a  bounty  was  offered  for 
home-made  cloth.     In  1656,   finding  the  supply  still  short. 


8 

the  selectmen  were  ordered  to  at^sess  on  each  family  the 
s})innino-  and  weaving  of  a  certain  amount  of  cloth.  This 
cloth  was  woven  on  hand  looms,  as  was  all  the  cloth  of 
every  kind  made  in  England  as  well  as  here  :  for  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  power  loom  was  not  in  existence,  —  it 
was  invented  1)y  Rev.  Edward  Cartwright  in  1788,  and  per- 
fected by  him  in  1790. 

The  lirst  fulling  mill  for  dressing  this  home-made  cloth 
was  built  at  Rowley  in  1G43  by  a  company  of  weavers, 
skilled  workmen  from  Yorkshire,  under  the  spiritual  and 
business  charge  of  Rev.  Ezekiel  Rogers,  where  the  first 
woolen  cloth  was  dressed  in  Xew  England.  Another  fulling 
mill  was  erected  in  Salem  about  the  same  time,  and  soon 
after  they  became  common.  The  price  of  this  home-made 
cloth  was  six  or  eight  shillings  per  yard,  imported  cloth  fifteen 
to  eighteen  shillings. 

In  1657  the  value  of  a  sheep  was  one  pound,  an  ox  five 
pounds,  horse  ten  pounds,  cow  three  pounds,  wool  eight 
pence,  negro  boy  twenty  pounds.  A  story  which  I  came 
across  in  preparing  this  paper,  though  not  entirely  pertinent, 
will  not  be  displeasing  to  you,  as  illustrating  some  of  the- 
trials  of  this  early  colonial  life.  In  the  latter  half  of  the 
last  century  lived  a  small  family  on  a  stony  farm  in  CVm- 
necticut.  The  stock  consisted  of  a  dozen  sheep  and  a  cow, 
who,  besides  her  yield  of  milk,  added  her  services  on  the 
plough  ;  corn  bread,  nn"lk  and  bean  porridge  were  the  staples 
of  their  diet.  The  father  being  incapacitated  by  long  illness, 
the  mother  did  her  work  in  the  house  and  helped  the  boys 
in  the  fields.  Once  in  mid-winter  one  of  the  boys  needed  a 
new  suit,  and  there  was  neither  money  nor  wool  in  the 
house.  The  mother  sheared  the  half-grown  fleece  from  a 
sheep,  and  in  a  week  it  was  made  into  clothes  for  the  boy. 
The  shorn  sheep,  so  generous  in  such  need,  was  protected 
from  the  cold  by  a  wrapping  made  of  braided  straw.  They 
lived  four  miles  from  the  meeting-house,  to  which  the  mother 
and  her  boys  walked  every  Sunday.  Those  boys  became  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Nott,  a  famous  preacher,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Elii)halet 
Nott,  the  President  of  Union  College. 

Our  ancestors  emigrated  from  different  i)laces  in  the 
United  Kin<:doni,  and   some   from  the  various  countries  of 


9 

Europe  ;  they  lirought  with  them  domestic  animals  and  then 
implements  of  husbandry  to  subdue  and  cultivate  the  wilder- 
ness. Each,  as  would  be  natural  to  suppose,  made  choice 
of  the  favorite  breed  of  his  own  immediate  district  to  trans- 
port to  the  new  world,  and  the  admixture  of  these  l)reed8 
formed  the  mongrel  family  known  as  native  sheep  ;  amid  the 
perils  of  war  and  the  incursions  of  wild  beasts  of  prey  these 
were  preserved  with  attentive  care.  The  descendants  of 
these  sheep,  known  in  our  day  as  "native  "  in  distinction  from 
the  breeds  of  recent  known  importation,  were  of  two  types, — 
one  with  white  faces  and  the  other  with  dark  or  spotted 
faces  and  legs.  These  last  were  known  in  the  Connecticut 
valley  and  through  the  western  part  of  the  State  as 
"English  runts  "  or  "Irish  smuts,"  and  were  undoubtedly 
taken  from  the  counties  lying  on  the  south  coast  of  England, 
Devon,  Hampshire  and  vSussex,  and  were  the  same  stock  of 
sheep  from  the  Downs  of  Sussex  and  Hampshire,  that  in 
later  years,  under  the  care  and  skill  of  John  Ellman,  Jonas 
Webb  and  others,  became  the  matchless  "  South  Downs." 

A  very  convincing  proof  of  this  occurred  in  my  own 
experience.  Some  thirty  years  ago  or  more,  when  Mr.  Fay 
imported  the  Oxford  Downs,  I  had  from  him  a  large  superior 
ram  which  I  coupled  with  fifty  of  the  Irish  smut  ewes  picked 
up  for  me  by  a  friendly  drover  in  the  western  part  of 
Franklin  County  and  southern  Vermont.  The  product  was 
marvellous ;  I  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  what  horse  men 
would  call  a  perfect  "  nick."  The  type  of  the  lambs,  several 
of  which  were  twins,  was  entirely  changed  from  that  of  the 
ewes,  and  seemed  to  assume  the  character  of  the  improved 
South  Down  in  the  Oxford  Down  ram ;  shortened  the  neck, 
colored  the  faces  uniformly  brown,  widened  the  breast, 
shortened  the  legs,  put  on  more  wool,  sprung  out  the  ribs, 
deepened  and  broadened  the  hind  quarters,  and  gave  them  a 
weight  of  seventy-five  pounds  in  ninety  days.  So  I  believe 
the  old  South  Down  blood  was  in  our  "  native"  sheep,  and 
only  needed  developing. 

The  larger  white-faced,  long-legged,  bare-legged,  light- 
fleeced  sheep  of  the  country  were  originally  brought  in 
considerable  numbers  from  the  Texel  and  other  parts  of 
Holland.     These    common  sheep  gave  a  wool   only  suited 


10 

for  coarser  fabrics,  yielding  in  the  hands  of  good  farmers 
a  fleece  of  not  over  three  and  one-half  or  four  pounds. 
They  were  slow  in  arriving  at  maturity,  compared  with 
the  present  improved  English  breeds,  and  yielded  when 
full  groAvn  only  from  twelve  to  fourteen  pounds  per  quarter 
of  a  middling  quality  of  mutton  which,  however,  was  in  but 
slight  demand ;  they  were  usually  long-legged,  light  in  the 
fore  quarter,  and  narrow  on  the  back  and  hind  quarter. 
They  were  hardy,  easy  keepers  and  good  breeders,  often 
rearing,  almost  entirely  destitute  of  care  and  shelter,  one 
hundred  per  cent  of  lambs,  and  in  small  flocks  with  more 
care  a  still  larger  proportion ;  these  were  dropped  in  March 
and  April.  Restless  in  their  disposition,  their  impatience  of 
restraint  almost  equalled  that  of  the  untamed  sheep  of  the 
Eocky  Mountains ;  and  in  many  parts  of  the  country  it  was 
common  to  see  flocks  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  roaming  with 
little  regard  to  enclosures  over  the  possessions  of  the  owner 
and  his  neighbors,  leaving  a  portion  of  their  wool  on  every 
thorn  and  bush. 

1  do  not  purpose  to  give  a  history  of  the  different  breeds 
of  sheep  cultivated  in  England,  but  briefly  to  notice  those 
that  have  received  the  preference  of  our  own  farmers. 

South  Downs. 

Seventy-five  years  ago  there  were  in  the  United  Kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  twenty  diflerent  so-called  breeds  of  sheep, 
each  peculiar  to  the  county  or  circumscribed  district  in  which 
they  were  bred,  and  many  of  them  probably  not  breeds  in 
the  strict  sense  of  that  term,  as  capable  of  reproducing  their 
own  type  under  all  circumstances.  Many  of  these  have  been 
a])Sorl)ed,  and  are  disappearing  by  cross-breeding  with  the 
more  profitable  breeds  ;  of  these,  the  one  having  undoubtedh^ 
the  most  influence  has  been  the  South  Down,  which  has 
stamped  its  characteristics  on  the  popular  families  of  the 
Oxford,  the  Hampshire  and  the  Shropshire  Downs,  now, 
with  the  exception  of  some  Merinos,  almost  exclusively  bred 
in  this  State. 

The  chalk  hills  called  downs,  running  through  the  countj^ 
of  Sussex  and  into  Hampshire  on  the  south  coast  of  England, 
are  the  home  of  the  South  Downs,  now  so  femous  all  over 


11 

the  world,  not  only  for  themselves,  but  as  fixing  their  char- 
acteristics on  every  breed  upon  whicli  they  have  been 
crossed  ;  and  this  they  owe  to  the  prepotency  of  their  blood, 
conducted  down  unmixed  for  nearly  a  thousand  years. 

But  the  South  Downs  were  not  always  what  they  are  now ; 
a  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  an  enterprising  sheep 
owner,  Mr.  John  Ellman,  commenced  the  improvement  of 
the  South  Downs  by  selecting  judiciously  and  breeding  most 
carefully.  This  was  afterward  continued  with  equal  skill  by 
Mr.  Jonas  Webb,  who  with  others  has  brought  these  beauti- 
ful animals  to  their  present  perfect  condition ;  their  pleasant 
brown  faces,  their  broad,  straight  backs,  their  deep  briskets 
and  splendid  legs  of  mutton  are  everywhere  known.  For 
this  part  of  the  country  they  and  their  congeners,  the  Shrops, 
the  Hampshire  and  the  Oxford,  are  the  most  valuable  and 
popular  sheep  we  have. 

Hampshire  Doiuns. 
From  the  South  Downs,  bred  on  the  old  white-faced  horned 
sheep  of  Hampshire  and  Wiltshire,  came  the  grand  Hampshire 
Down ;  but  the  strong  blood  of  the  South  Down  has  done 
away  with  the  horns,  and  given  them  its  own  dark  face. 
They  are  large,  heavy  sheep,  producing  splendid  hardy 
lambs,  with  a  good  fleece  and  an  admirable  leg  of  mutton ; 
and  they,  as  well  as  all  the  Downs,  impart  their  charac- 
teristics wherever  used. 

Shropshires. 
The  Shropshires  were  produced  by  breeding  the  South 
Downs  on  the  small,  dark-faced  horned  sheep  of  Shropshire 
on  the  border  of  Wales  ;  the  size  was  improved  by  a  cross  or 
two  of  Leicester,  and  reverting  to  the  South  Downs,  who 
have  taken  oif  the  horns,  and  made  them  one  of  the  most 
popular  breeds  in  England  and  in  this  State,  bearing  all  the 
excellent  characteristics  of  the  Downs. 

Oxford  Downs. 
The  Oxford  Downs  were  large  and  white-faced ;  but  under 
the  influence  of  the  South  Downs  and  the  Hampshire  Downs, 
and  with  an  occasional  dip  into  the  Cotswolds  to  add  to  and 


12 


kee})  up  the  size  (which  has  Ijcen  done  with  all  these  breeds 
improved  by  the  influence  of  South  Down  blood),  they  have 
become  grand  sheep  with  a  good  fleece,  heavier  than  the 
Cotswold  and  somewhat  finer ;  they  are  very  likely  to  drop 
twins,  and  are  very  capal)le  of  raising  them.  All  of  these 
Down  sheep  are  worthy  of  our  attention  and  care. 

Leicesters. 
The  original  Leicesters  were  large,  coarse,  inferior  ani- 
mals, till  Kobert  Bake  well,  something  over  a  century  ago, 
commenced  their  improvement ;  and  by  care,  selection  and 
breeding  steadily  for  one  purj^ose,  he  made  them  the  best 
mutton  sheep  in  the  world  at  that  time,  not  caring  whether 
they  had  any  wool  or  not.  He  bred  them  so  close  and  so 
fine  as  greatly  to  impair  their  constitution.  They  are  not 
suited  to  our  climate  and  general  treatment  as  pure-bred 
animals,  but  our  native  sheep  were  jears  ago  unproved  by  a 
cross  of  Leicester  for  size. 

Cofswolds. 
The  Cotswolds  came  from  the  county  of  Gloucester,  early 
noted  for  wool  production ;  its  sheep  were  so  highly  prized 
that  four  hundred  years  ago  a  number  were  exported  to 
Spain  by  royal  pel-mission.  They  are  remarkable  for  size 
and  symmetry,  and  are  of  an  imposing  presence.  The  head 
is  large,  without  horns,  carried  high  and  well  wooled,  with 
a  large  forelock  hanging  over  the  face ;  the  face  and  legs  are 
white,  occasionally  slightly  mottled  with  gray  or  dark 
l)rown ;  the  wool  is  long,  wavy  and  lustrous,  sometimes 
measuring  eight  to  ten  inches,  and  commands  a  high  price  ; 
the  quality  of  the  flesh,  —  though  not  equal  to  the  Downs,  — 
their  great  size  and  good  shape  make  them  desirable  espe- 
cially to  cross  on  other  breeds  when  increased  size  is  desired, 
and  they  have  been  used  for  that  purpose  in  this  State. 

Dor  sets. 
Another  breed  which  is  attracting  considerable  attention  in 
this  country  at  the  present  time,  and  has  long  been  popular 
in  England,  is  the  Dorset.  From  time  immemorial  these 
sheep  have  been  naturalized  in  the  county  of  Dorset,  and 
fom^erly  extended  over  a  large  tract  of  country. 


These  sheep  possess  small  horns  common  to  both  male 
«ind  female  ;  they  have  white  faces,  and  legs  which  are  some- 
what long  but  fine,  showing  a  very  good  breast  and  a  fine 
leg  of  mutton  with  loins  broad  and  deep  ;  wethers  will  fatten 
to  twenty  pounds  to  the  quarter.  They  are  a  liardy  race  of 
sheep,  docile,  and  capable  of  subsisting  on  scanty  pastures ; 
their  mutton  is  good,  and  they  shear  six  or  seven  pounds  of 
close  wool,  finer  than  the  Downs. 

The  property  of  the  Dorsets  which  remarkably  distin- 
guishes them  is  the  fecundity  of  the  females,  and  their  readi- 
ness to  receive  the  ram  at  any  season.  This,  and  their 
capacity  for  yielding  an  abundant  supply  of  milk,  renders 
them  paiticularly  desiral)le  for  raising  early  lambs.  In 
England  they  have  been  largely  and  profitably  used  for  rais- 
ing lambs  for  winter  use  even  as  early  as  Christmas,  and 
called  "  house  lambs,"  for  which  in  London  there  is  a  great 
demand.  The  lambs  are  hardy,  thrifty,  mature  early,  and 
will  dress  twenty-eight  to  thirty  pounds  at  sixty  or 
seventy  days  old.  Probabh^  a  cross  of  a  South  Down 
ram  on  Dorset  ewes  would  give  more  size  and  early  maturity 
with  the  superior  nursing  quality  of  the  dam.  They  tend 
strongly  to  twins,  sometimes  having  triplets,  and  their  full 
flow  of  milk  sufiices  to  raise  the  lambs.  Some  sheep  farmers 
think  one  lamb  for  a  ewe  is  better  than  two  ;  but  if  the  ewe  is  a 
good  milker,  and  well  fed,  twins  are  profitable.  Mr.  Youatt 
says,  "If  a  farmer  has  feed  enough  and  good  enough,  twins 
are  highly  desirable."  An  old  English  couplet,  written 
before  the  first  sheep  was  landed  in  Plymouth  colony,  says  :  — 

"  Ewes  yearly  by  twinning  rich  masters  do  make  ; 
The  lambs  of  such  twinners  for  breeders  go  take." 

Meri)ws. 
The  breed  of  sheep,  however,  which  in  its  production  of 
fine  wool  has  been  the  most  important  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  is  the  Spanish  Merino.  Long  before  the  Christian 
era  the  finest  garments  worn  by  the  nobility  and  wealthy 
citizens  of  imperial  Rome  were  woven  from  the  fine  wools  of 
Truditania,  Andalusia  and  Estramadura  in  Spain.  Subse- 
quently the  original  Spanish  sheep  were  raised  and  improved 
by  the  Moors,  who  brought  with  them  into  Spain  fine  sheep 


u 

from  North  Africa,  which  tliey  had  carefully  cultivated,  and 
from  whose  fleeces  were  woven  fabrics  of  superlative  quality. 
The  tine  sheep  of  Spain  a  hundred  years  ago  num))ered 
over  twenty  millions,  and  were  long  preserved  as  a  monop- 
oly with  jealous  care.  Sweden  has  the  honor  of  being  the 
first  country  which  secured  a  flock  of  these  coveted  animals. 
France,  though  adjoining  Spain,  obtained  none  till  near  the 
close  of  the  last  century.  In  17G5  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
succeeded  in  securing  a  flock,  which,  crossed  on  the  native 
fine  sheep  of  his  kingdom,  and  carefull}^  bred,  made  the 
Saxonies  so  famous  for  the  fineness  of  their  wool  here  sixty 
years  ago.  The  skill  and  ability  with  which  the  Spanish 
Merinos  were  bred  and  cultivated  in  this  part  of  the  country 
were  convincingly  shown  at  an  international  exhil)ition  in 
1861,  at  Hamburg,  Germany,  when  American  Merinos, 
bred  by  George  Campl)ell  of  Vermont,  and  exhiluted  under 
the  direction  of  Col.  Daniel  Needham,  formerly  of  our  Board, 
captured  the  prizes  and  defied  competition. 

Saxonies. 

The  Saxonies  were  first  imported  l>y  Samuel  Henshaw  of 
Boston,  and  much  was  anticipated  from  the  introduction  of 
these  sheep  producing  such  superlatively  fine  wool,  ^^'hen 
they  were  introduced,  in  1823  or  1824,  they  were  much 
smaller  and  of  a  feebler  constitution  than  their  parent  stock, 
the  Spanish  Merinos  ;  the  wool  was  from  an  inch  to  an  inch 
and  a  half  long  on  the  back  and  sides,  and  a  washed  fleece 
weighed  only  about  one  and  three-fourths  pounds.  Attempts 
at  improvement  by  crossing  with  the  ]\Ierinos  were  made  in 
vain ;  both  deteriorated,  and  before  1850  the  Saxonies  had 
mostly  gone  out.  They  have  been  lessening  in  number 
greatly  ever  since,  and,  although  we  nominally  have  al)out 
a  thousand,  I  doubt  if  there  is  a  genuine,  pure-bred  Saxon 
in  the  State. 

From  the  long-established  policy  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  encouraging  and  fostering  the  manufactures  of  that 
country  and  of  discouraging  and  even  forbidding  any 
attempts  toward  it  in  her  colonies,  we  found  ourselves,  at  the 
close  of  the  war  of  the  revolution,  not  only  without  the  man- 
ufactories of  woollens,  but  also  destitute  of  the  material  from 


which  to  make  such  fine  goods  as  were  necessary.  The  atten- 
tion of  our  statesmen  was  early  directed  to  supply  this 
deficiency,  and  they  wisely  looked  to  the  Merinos  of  Spain 
to  accomplish  it ;  but  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that 
the  Spanish  Government  could  be  persuaded  to  allow  any  of 
them  to  be  exported. 

The  first  important  importation  of  these  was  made  by  Col. 
David  Humphreys  of  Connecticut,  then  United  States  Minis- 
ter to  Spain,  who  brought  a  flock  of  about  one  hundred  to 
his  farm  in  Derby,  Connecticut.  These  increased  to  such 
an  extent  that  he  made  at  his  mill  in  1807  several  hundred 
yards  of  fine  cloth.  In  1809  President  Madison  was  inducted 
into  office  in  the  first  inaugural  suit  of  American  broadcloth, 
the  coat  from  Colonel  Humphrey's  flock,  the  waistcoat  and 
small  clothes  from  the  flock  of  Mr.  Livingston  of  New  York. 
Arthur  Scholfield  wove  the  first  piece  of  fine  broadcloth  that 
was  ever  made  in  this  country  from  Merino  wool,  at  Pittsfield 
in  this  State. 

The  most  important  early  importation,  however,  was  l)y 
Mr.  William  Jarvis,  American  consul  at  Lisbon  in  Portugal, 
who  seized  an  opportunity  to  buy  some  of  the  finest  sheep 
in  Spain,  the  confiscated  property  of  some  wealthy  noble- 
man, and  sent  to  this  State  and  to  different  parts  of  the 
country  about  thirty-eight  hundred  fine  Merinos,  the  most 
and  finest  ever  exi)orted.  These  and  others,  distributed 
over  all  the  States  bordering  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  soon 
changed  the  character  of  the  wool  and  wool  growing  of  the 
country. 

It  is  not  strange  that  we  of  Massachusetts  should  have 
taken  the  lead  in  this  industry  of  wool  growing  and  wool 
manufacturing  as  we  did  in  every  matter  advancing  the 
material  or  the  intellectual  progress  of  civilization.  The 
first  sheep  producing  the  desired  quality  of  wool  for  making 
fine  cloth  were  either  landed  on  our  shores  or  brought 
directly  within  our  borders,  where  they  were  cared  for  and 
multiplied  amazingly.  There  were  then  no  Western  States  ; 
Ohio,  which  has  since  assumed  the  lead  in  sheep  raising  and 
in  sheep  legislation,  had  just  received  her  baptismal  nomina- 
tion ;  all  the  sheep,  all  the  implements  of  manufacture,  — 
such  as  they  were,  all  the  men  of  character  and  industry, 
were  this  side  the  Alleshanies. 


16 

The  ineii  who  planted  themselves  on  the  coast  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  came  not  only  for  religious  freedom  but  to  speedily 
build  themselves  homes  with  such  necessaries  and  comforts 
as  they  enjoyed  in  the  homes  they  had  left  behind  them,  by 
laborino-  at  the  same  occupations  at  which  they  had  wrought 
in  England.  The  list  of  trades  and  those  who  worked  in 
them  would  astonish  one,  from  glass  workers  to  needle 
makers ;  the  names  of  Joseph  Jenks,  John  Pearson,  Edward 
Giblion,  Israel  Stoughton  and  others  who  started  manufact- 
ures should  ])e  kept  in  perpetual  remembrance. 

Our  climate  is  admirably  adapted  to  sheep  growing,  one 
proof  of  which  is  that  in  no  country  are  sheep  so  little  liable 
to  disease  as  in  New  England.  Our  rough  hills  covered 
with  sweet  herbage  from  which  all  superfluous  water  disap- 
pears about  as  fast  as  it  falls,  and  our  sharp,  dry  winds, 
are  naturally  adapted  to  the  wants  and  conditions  of  sheep, 
which  always  thrive  best  in  the  purest  and  most  bracing 
atmospherg^l  Wet  seasons  and  wet  soils  are  destructive  to 
sheep.  The  New  England  flock  master  is  forced  to  recognize 
what  the  English  sheep  raisers  were  long  in  leaniing, — the 
economy  and  benefit  of  shelter  in  winter,  even  in  their  less 
rigorous  climate.  The  truth  is  that  sheep  in  New  England, 
if  well  sheltered  and  furnished  with  proper  food,  will  pro- 
duce better  avooI  and  mutton  and  a  larger  increase  of  Iambs 
than  sheep  exposed,  even  in  the  genial  climate  of  Virginia. 
Sheep  are  most  indiscriminate  feeders,  and  delight  in  a 
change  of  food.  One  who  takes  the  pains  to  observe  them 
when  feeding  will  be  surprised  at  the  continual  shifting  they 
make  from  one  species  of  herl)age  to  another,  and  upon  our 
hills  and  valleys  there  is  to  be  found  the  full  variety  which 
their  nature  requires. 

The  first  mill  for  weaving  and  finishing  fine  cloth  was  at 
Pittsfield,  run  by  Arthur  Scholfield,  a  weaver  from  York- 
shire, who  settled  here  and  made  the  first  broadcloth,  fine 
enough  for  any  gentleman's  wear  at  that  time.  Several 
hundred  yards  of  homespun  were  annually  dressed  at  Rowley 
and  Salem.  That  there  was  abundant  wool  of  common  kind 
widely  distributed  is  shown  by  this  fact,  among  others,  that 
in  the  first  years  of  this  century  two  thousand  pairs  of  hand- 
knit  stockings  were  annually  exported  from  the  Island  of 
Martha's  Vineyard. 


17 


On  the  15th  of  November  I  addressed  circuhirs  containing 
a  few  interrogatories  to  A^arious  men  in  the  State  whose 
names  were  given  me  as  sheep  raisers,  to  the  number  of 
about  a  hundred.  I  have  been  much  gratified  at  the  full 
replies  made,  of  which  I  have  received  over  sixty,  for  which 
I  beg  to  thank  very  heartily  the  senders.  I  intend  if  possil)le 
to  tabulate  the  results,  and  to  have  them  presented  to  the 
public  at  some  future  time. 

The  great  decline  of  our  sheep  and  wool  commenced 
apparently  about  fifty  years  ago.  In  1838  we  had  384,614 
sheep,  of  which  200,383  were  Merinos,  46,985  were  Saxonies, 
and  137,246  other  breeds.  In  1888,  fifty  years  later,  we 
had  51,539  sheep,  of  which  4,500  were  Merinos,  1,000  were 
Saxonies,  and  about  46,000  other  breeds.  In  1838  the  total 
value  of  sheep  and  wool  was  $1,116,608;  in  1888  it  was 
$295,000.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  in  fifty  years  our  sheep 
have  decreased  in  numbers  over  333,000,  and  our  wool 
812,000  pounds.  While  our  losses  in  aggregate  numbers 
have  been  very  large,  yet  the  gain  in  individual  animals 
shows  our  great  improvement  in  breeding. 

In  1838  each  sheep  was  valued  at  $1.50,  and  sheared  two 
and  three-fourths  pounds  to  the  fleece.  Fat  lambs  were 
valued  at  $1.75  each.  In  1888  each  sheep  was  worth  $5.00, 
and  sheared  four  and  one-half  pounds  of  wool,  and  lambs 
were  worth  $5.00  each.  So  that  men  who  own  sheep  now 
hold  a  property  worth  more  than  ever  before. 

The  following  table  shows  the  diminution  of  the  sheep 
generally,  and  by  breeds,  which,  with  any  adequate  causes 
to  account  for  it,  I  have  faithfully  pondered  over  in  a  spirit 
of  unintelligent  curiosity  :  — 


Y  E  A  K  S  . 

Saxonies. 

Merinos. 

Otlier  Breeds. 

Total. 

1845 

33,875 

165,428 

155,640 

354,943 

1855, 

6,800 

65,584 

72,825 

145,215 

1865, 

3,126 

55,428 

110,888 

169,442 

1875 

1,631 

14,456 

42,686 

58,773 

1885, 

1,215 

5,307 

48,618 

55,140 

18 

In  1890  the  whole  numljer  by  the  assessors'  returns  was 
45,899  ;  the  breeds  are  not  given.  Since  18G5  the  decrease 
has  been  gradual  every  year,  and  almost  invariable.  What 
was  the  cause  or  what  were  the  causes  that  produced  this 
unprecedented  decline  in  an  industry  pleasant  and  profitable  ? 

Decrease  in  Number  of  Sheep. 
Those  who  know  nothing  of  the  subject  confidently  assert 
some  one  reason ;  those  who  have  studied  the  matter  don't 
pretend  to  know,  but  suppose  that  all  the  causes  assigned 
may,  combined,  have  produced  the  eflect  for  which  no  one 
alone  can  be  regarded  adequate.  Among  the  causes  assigned 
are  the  operation  and  the  fluctuation  of  the  tariff;  the 
greatly  increased  importation  of  wool  from  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  South  America  and  other  foreign  countries ;  the 
introduction  of  shoddy  (invented  in  1803)  to  a  large  extent 
some  years  later ;  the  enormously  increased  importation,  by 
enlarged  railway  facilities,  of  sheep  and  laml)s  from  the 
West ;  the  great  increase  of  the  dairy  industry  in  milk, 
cream  and  l)utter ;  the  destruction  of  sheep  by  dogs ;  the 
diminution  of  flocks  induced  by  the  decay  of  fences.  The 
first  three  of  these  alleged  causes  for  the  decrease  of  our 
flocks  apply  especially  to  loss  in  the  past,  while  the  last  four 
show  reasons  which  act  against  the  revival  of  this  industry. 
I  pass  lightly  over  these,  as,  in  the  talk  which  will  follow 
this  paper,  these  alleged  causes  will  be  more  full}^  and  satis- 
factorily considered,  and  this  will  form  the  most  valuable 
part  of  this  meeting. 

Importation  of  Sheep  from  the  West. 

One  of  the  most  important  causes  for  the  decrease  of  our 
own  home-grown  sheep  for  the  slaughter  for  mutton  and 
lamb  has  been  the  great  influx  of  these  animals  from  the 
West,  fi-om  Canada  and  from  other  States,  for  killing  and 
not  for  breeding  nor  the  production  of  wool,  induced  by  the 
vastly  increased  railway  facilities  showing  a  large  advance  in 
the  demand  for  mutton  and  lamb  in  our  markets. 

At  Brighton,  on  the  week  before  Christmas,  1839,  two 
Franklin  County  men  held  four  hundred  sheep,  every  one  in 
the  market ;    yet,  so  ample  w^as  that  supply  and  so  inactive 


19 

the  demand,  that  they  could  not  raise  the  market  a  half  cent 
a  pound,  and  finally  sold  with  difficulty.  Just  twenty  years 
after  that,  Christmas  week,  1859,  five  thousand  four  hundred 
sheep  changed  hands  from  the  drover  to  the  butcher.  On 
the  week  preceding  Christmas,  1889,  fifty  years  from  the 
first  date,  the  receipts  were  $10,444,  and  the  demand  such 
as  called  for  advanced  rates,  and  a  quarter  of  a  cent  per 
pound  was  easily  realized.  This  increase  has  continued 
annually.  In  1890  the  numl^er  of  live  sheep  discharged  at 
Brighton  and  Watertown  was  583,545,  of  which  the  Western 
were  370,067,  from  Canada  88,313,  sheep  of  Massachusetts 
6,181,  from  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  48  head.  A 
very  few  of  these  are  sold  for  breeding,  some  for  export, 
but  almost  all  are  slaughtered  at  the  market. 

The  reports  of  animals  every  week  (for  which  I  am 
indebted  to  Mr.  Whitaker  of  the  "New  England  Farmer") 
show  receipts  varying  in  numbers  from  5,000  in  March  to 
17,722  in  September  and  October.  This  indicates  a  very 
enlarged  demand  for  a  most  nutritious,  cheap  and  wholesome 
article  of  food,  shown  by  theoretical  considerations,  as  well 
as  by  careful  experiment,  to  be  quite  equal  to  beef  and 
superior  to  pork  or  almost  any  of  the  meats  we  use. 

Dairy  Industry. 
Probably  the  great  interest  at  the  present  time  and  for 
some  years  past  in  the  making  of  milk,  cream,  butter  and 
cheese,  with  a  paying  price  and  quick  returns  for  the  prod- 
uct, has  had  much  to  do  in  repressing  the  keeping  of  sheep 
and  raising  lambs,  aggravated  by  the  uncertainty  of  that 
branch  of  farm  industry  through  destruction  by  dogs.  The 
growth  of  the  dairy  production  has  been  as  remarkable  as  the 
decrease  of  sheep  products.  As  a  matter  for  comparison,  I 
give  the  dairy  products  of  1865,  the  first  year  that  a  com- 
plete census  was  attempted  for  them,  with  the  last,  of 
1885:  — 

ises. 

Milk, $1,930,409 

Butter, 1,389,027 

Cheese, 582,253 

;  f  3,901, 689 


20 


1883.      • 

Milk, ...  $10,312,762 

Buttei-,  including  creamei-y, 2,611,351 

Cheese,  including  factor^', 99,478 

Cream, 202,706 

$13,226,297 

The  cows  and  heifers  of  1865  numbei-ed,      ....  174,386 

The  cows  and  heifers  of  1885  numbered,      ....  198,997 

Fe7ices. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  imperfect  fencing  had  a  consideral^le 
part  in  discouraging  farmers  who  were  keeping  sheep.  Many 
fences,  only  enough  of  which  are  left  to  make  division  lines, 
were  built  long  years  ago.  The  life  of  a  Virginia  rail  fence 
is  al)out  sixty  years ;  to  a  stone  wall  there  is  no  limit  of 
duration,  but  there  is  to  its  ability  to  turn  sheep.  A  rail 
fence  becomes  at  last  broken  and  rotten  in  spots,  and  must 
be  repaired,  sometimes  by  lopping  down  a  small  tree,  some- 
times by  putting  in  a  rotten  rail  or  a  couple  of  insufficient 
stakes.  The  stone  wall,  always  a  "balance  wall,"  has  l)een 
rudely  laid  a  hundred  years  more  or  less  by  the  unskilled 
hands  of  the  farmer  and  his  hired  man  ;  year  after  year  it  has 
settled,  and  the  top  stones  have  tumbled  down,  especially 
on  a  side  hill,  aided  by  long  j^ears  of  storm  and  by  careless 
hunters  and  l)oys.  Where  the  stones  have  fallen  so  as  to 
make  a  set  of  convenient  steps,  the  sheep  will  cheerfully 
walk  over,  or  will  crawl  through  any  hole  or  gap  in  a  fence. 
Early  in  the  spring  the  farmer,  annoyed  at  the  continual 
excursions  of  his  sheep  the  preceding  season,  starts  out  with 
his  boys  to  mend  his  fences ;  a  long,  cold,  wearisome  job  it 
is,  and  usually  done  in  the  most  slouching  and  perfunctory 
manner.  A  few  years  of  this,  and  he  begins  to  agree  with 
the  boys  that  cows  are  easier  kept. 

Recently  barbed  wire  has  come  to  our  relief,  and  a  single 
strand  stretched  on  posts  or  stakes  above  the  top  of  the  wall 
makes  it  pretty  secure,  while  a  fence  of  four  or  five  strands  is 
cheap,  will  restrain  the  sheep,  and  protect  them  from  dogs. 

Tariff. 
Tariff  is    a   dreadful-sounding  word,  and  causes  as  much 
dismay  and  terror  now  as  it  did  when  borne  by  that  pirat  oal 
old  Arab  cut-throat  Tarif  Ibn  malek  al-ma-feri,  who,  taki^ig 


possession  of  a  small  island  at  the  straits  of  Gibrsrltar^  moM/ 
than  twelve  hundred  years  ago,  levied  a  cciqipulsory  tritmte, 
from  all  who  came  his  way  sailing  in  or  out  of->,the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  who  gave  his  name  to  a  system  ^d^^exaction 
which  has  continued  to  this  day.  What  influence  this  Arab- 
born  institution  may  have  had  on  the  increase  or  the  diminu- 
tion of  sheep  and  wool  of  this  State,  I  don't  know,  and 
haven't  been  able  to  find  out  by  a  system  of  careful  reading 
and  inquir3^  Twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  it  was  a  com- 
mon complaint  from  old  farmers  who  had  flocks  of  hundreds 
of  Merinos  and  Saxonies  that  their  wool  o;rowing  was  ruined 
by  the  tarift',  and  that  they  had  to  abandon  sheep  raising. 
My  opinion  is  that,  for  the  past  thirty  years  at  least,  the 
efifect  of  any  legislation  would  be  very  immaterial,  con- 
sidering the  small  quantity  and  low  grade  of  our  wool,  in 
reducing  to  any  large  extent  the  number  of  our  sheep  so 
terril)ly  depleted  ;  but  I  leave  this  to  be  settled  in  the  discus- 
sion to  follow. 

Dogs  and  Sheej). 

Bej^ond  all  question  the  real  reason  which  deters  farmers 
from  engaging  in  the  raising  and  breeding  of  sheep  at  the 
present  time  is  the  constant  apprehension  of  the  destruction 
of  flocks  and  their  demoralization  by  dogs.  Our  observa- 
tion and  the  statements  of  sheep  growers  generally  through- 
out the  Commonwealth  universally  show  this.  We  are 
often  asked  by  dog  owners  why  there  is  so  much  complaint 
now,  when  there  was  but  little  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago. 
The  answer  is  that  in  numbers  the  dogs  and  the  sheep  are 
out  of  all  proportion  to  what  they  were  then.  Then,  when 
there  were  three  hundred  and  forty  thousand  sheep,  with 
but  few  dogs,  and  the  sheep  in  flocks  of  hundreds,  and  each 
sheep  worth  only  a  dollar  and  a  half,  if  a  half-dozen  sheep 
were  killed  they  might  not  be  missed,  and,  if  they  were, 
the  damage  was  inconsiderable ;  but  now,  when  a  man  has  a 
flock  of  say  forty,  each  worth  six  dollars,  and  often  bearing 
lambs,  ravages  by  dogs,  killing  a  half  or  a  third  of  his 
flock,  tearing  others  and  demoralizing  all,  become  a  very 
serious  matter.  I  shall  not  go  into  any  detail  of  the  losses 
we  have  had,  nor  shall  I  attempt  to  stir  up  agitation, 
of  no  use  ;  dogs  and  dog  owners  have  the  mastery, 
double-barreled  shot  gun  with  eleven   buckshot,  or 


losses 

and(  a    \> 

a  few      V- 


22 

grains  of  strychnine    placed  in   a  l)eef's  head   judiciously 
located  as  a  preventive  against  loss  (by  foxes),  are  our  only 
guards.     To  show  how  unavailing  any  attempt  at  legislation 
"~~~~--mttsti3e,  it  is  enough  to  give  some  figures. 

The  census  shows  15,218  dogs,  valued  by  their  13,071 
owners  at  $10.35  each.  So  much  for  dog  owners  and  census 
returns  when  they  make  such  returns  as  suit  themselves. 
The  county  treasurer's  books  show  the  tax  paid  on  dogs  to 
be,  for  1890,  $169,057.  The  tax  is  $2.00  per  head  for  males, 
and  $5.00  for  females.  The  number  of  dogs  has  not  been 
returned  to  the  comptroller,  but,  as  he  says,  the  number  of 
female  dogs  being  small,  you  can  allow  $3,000  for  them; 
dividing  the  rest  of  the  tax  by  two  gives  you  88,000  dogs 
and  al)Out  as  many  dog  owners,  as  against  45,899  sheep  and 
2,500  owners,  jj  It's  a  pitiable  sight :  2,500  men  contending 
for  the  right  to  enjoy  a  peaceable,  legitimate  and  profitable 
industry,  against  88,000  holders  of  generally  dan^erou^ 
savage  and  worthless  non-producing  brutes.  t)  f^^''^ 

Sheep  as  Food.  ^,f 

Mutton  and  lamb  are  favorite  food  of  the  English  and 
Scotch  of  all  classes  ;  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said 
or  written  of  the  "  roast  beef  of  Old  England,"  more  mutton 
is  eaten  by  people  of  every  rank  than  beef.  Mutton  for- 
merly was  not  a  favorite  food  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  though  the  proportional  consumption  is  greatly 
increasing ;  the  difference  may  be  largely  attributed  to  cir- 
cumstances which  have  led  to  halnt,  and  habit  to  a  large 
extent  regulates  the  appetite.  The  circumstances  may  be 
partly  these  :  that  formerly  we  had  none  of  the  real  mutton 
sheep  to  eat ;  our  old  native  stock  was  poor,  and  the  Merinos 
vastly  worse.  The  sheep  formerly  killed  were  too  often  old 
and  poor,  and  the  cheapness  of  the  animals  too  often  brought 
them  as  food  to  those  who  were  compelled  to  eat  them ;  form 
laborers,  apprentices,  servants  and  others  learned  to  thor- 
oughly dislike  mutton;  and  many  men  and  women  so  far 
advanced  as  to  have  perhaps  every  other  recollection  of 
school  days  wiped  from  the  memory,  still  retain  in  the  most 
lively  manner  the  disgust  created  by  the  inevitable  daily 
mutton  of  the  boarding-house.     The  remarkable  experiments 


23 

of  Dr.  Beaumont,  conducted  more  than  fifty  years  ago,  are 
authority  to  this  day.  He  found  that  lamb  and  mutton  were 
more  digesti])le  than  any  other  meats  we  are  in  the  hal)it  of 
consuming,  were  assimilated  more  readily  to  the  system,  and 
consequently  are  more  nutritious. 

While  mutton  is  regarded  by  medical  men  and  physiolo- 
gists as  the  most  nutritious  meat,  it  is  also  the  most  econom- 
ical to  purchase  at  the  usual  prices.  Eng-Hsh  chemists  and 
philosophers,  by  a  series  of  careful  experiments,  find  that 
100  pounds  of  beef  in  boiling  lose  26.^  pounds,  in  roast- 
ing 32  pounds,  and  in  baking  30  pounds,  by  evaporation  and 
loss  of  soluble  matter,  juices,  water  and  fat.  Mutton  lost  by 
boiling  21  pounds  and  by  roasting  24  pounds  ;  or,  in  another 
form  of  statement,  a  leg  of  mutton  costing  raw  15  cents 
would  cost  boiled  and  prepared  for  the  table  18|  cents 
per  pound.  Boiled  fresh  beef  would  at  the  same  price  cost 
19|  cents  per  pound;  sirloin  of  beef  raw,  at  16^  cents, 
costs  roasted  24  cents;  while  a  leg  of  mutton  at  15  cents 
would  cost  roasted  only  22  cents.  These  facts  have  been 
long  known  and  demonstrated,  and  it  is  to  be  much  desired 
that  our  people  should  appreciate  them  and  apply  them  to 
daily  use.  The  taste  for  and  consumption  of  mutton  w^ll 
increase  according  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  pro- 
duction. Mr.  Mechi,  the  celebrated  farmer  and  scientist, 
said  he  was  convinced  that  beef  must  sell  twenty  per  cent 
higher  than  mutton  to  make  it  pay. 

In  this  connection  it  is  pertinent  to  recall  the  statement 
previously  made  before  this  Board  by  one  of  its  most 
prominent  members,  of  the  necessity,  in  slaughtering  sheep 
and  lambs,  to  remove  immediately  the  paunch  and  intestines" 
before  skinning.  If  allowed  to  remain  in  only  a  few  minutes, 
they  will  impart  a  strong,  disagreeable  "sheep  taste." 
Probably  ignorance  and  a  disregard  of  this  important  fact 
are  largely  responsible  for  the  disgust  in  which  the  flesh  of 
mutton  and  lamb  was  formerly  held. 

The  keeping  of  sheep  requires  constant  care  and  is  full  of 
solicitude,  but  it  is  profitable,  and,  as  farming  goes  among 
the  occupations  of  men,  it  is  pleasant.  This  is  the  com- 
mercial and  prosaic  view ;  but  there  is  an  incident  in  our 
history    connected    with    this,   poetical    and    solemn.        In 


24 

this  late  season  of  the  year,  and  at  the  approach  to 
Christmas  Day,  we  cannot  dissever  the  thoughts  of  this 
industry  from  this  occasion.  It  cannot  be  foreign  to  our 
minds,  nor  is  it  unworthy  of  us  as  Christian  men,  to  remem- 
ber and  note  that  the  first  announcement  of  the  birth  of  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  was  made,  not  to  the  scientific  astrolo- 
gers who  made  the  heavens  their  study,  not  to  the  learned 
scribes  and  Pharisees  who  pondered  the  law  and  the  prophets, 
and  not  to  those  who  lived  in  kings'  houses  clothed  in  fine 
raiment ;  but  it  was  to  shepherds  who  watched  their  flocks 
by  night  on  the  star-lighted  plains  of  Judea,  followed  by  the 
sublimest  solo  and  chorus  that  ever  fell  on  mortal  ears,  of 
' '  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  on  earth  peace  and  good- will 
toward  men." 

The  Chairmax.  Gentlemen,  I  know  I  voice  your  opinion 
when,  as  chairman  for  the  day,  I  thank  ]\Ir.  Grinnell  for  his 
most  charming  and  instructive  paper.  Mr.  Hollis  of  Boston 
has  kindly  come  here  to  give  us  some  figures  relative  to  the 
amount  of  mutton  that  is  consumed  in  Massachusetts.  We 
all  know  that  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  mutton  and 
laml:)  consumed  here  which  has  been  imported  into  this  State. 
We  have  plenty  of  land,  and  all  we  want  is  a  little  ambition 
among  fiirmers  to  become  shepherds,  and  we  can  raise  a 
large  percentage,  if  not  all,  of  the  mutton  and  laml)  that  is 
needed  in  Massachusetts.  Will  Mr.  Hollis  kindly  give  us  a 
few  figures? 

Mr.  Hollis.  I  arrived  in  town  this  morning  a  few 
minutes  before  I  came  up  here,  and  I  am  not  prepared  to 
give  any  figures. 

The  Chairmax.  In  a  general  way  can  you  not  say  about 
how  many  carcasses  you  slaughter  or  your  company  slaugh- 
ters ? 

Mr.  Hollis.  Well,  I  happen  to  have  in  my  pocket  a 
little  paper  on  which  I  have  kept  a  memorandum  of  the 
number  of  sheep  we  have  slaughtered  since  1885.  In  1885 
we  slaughtered  376,415  ;  in  1886,  367,822  ;  in  1887,  399,272  ; 
in  1888,  387,345;  in  1889,  396,124;  in  1890,  414,620.  In 
the  ten  months  of  this  year,  up  to  the  first  of  November,  we 
slaughtered  357,484. 


25 

The  Chairman.  Thank  you  very  much.  That  shows, 
gentlemen,  that  the  demand  for  nnitton  is  not  on  the  decrease. 
Will  Mr.  Hollis  kindly  tell  us  about  what  price  mutton  has 
averaged  for  the  last  eight  or  ten  months  ? 

Mr.  Hollis.  I  do  not  think  that  I  could.  It  varies  from 
month  to  month. 

The  Chairman.  But  for  good  fair  mutton  you  usually 
get  from  5  to  6  cents  a  pound  for  the  carcass  dressed,  do 
you  not? 

Mr.  Hollis.  I  think  it  will  vary  from  6  to  10  cents  a 
pound,  and  lamlis  from  6  to  12|  cents. 

Mr.  Grinnell.  What  proportion  of  the  carcasses  are 
exported  from  Boston  ? 

Mr.  Hollis.  There  has  not  been  any  exported  for  the 
last  two  or  three  years.  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  mutton 
exported  from  the  United  States  now.  • 

Mr.  Grinnell.  Then  of  course  all  the  sheep  that  come 
into  the  Brighton  and  Watertown  markets  are  slaughtered 
there  ? 

Mr.  Hollis.     Yes,  sh*. 

Mr.  Grinnell.  Is  there  any  reason  for  the  variation  in 
the  amounts  in  one  year  and  another? 

Mr.  Hollis.  That  is  owing  to  the  supply  and  demand. 
There  is  no  particular  reason  for  it,  that  I  know  of. 

Governor  Hoard.  I  would  like  to  ask  the  gentleman 
from  what  territory  those  sheep  are  mostly  obtained  ? 

Mr.  Hollis.  You  might  say  from  Halifax  down  to 
Virginia.  From  the  first  of  June  until  the  first  of  Septem- 
l)er  we  get  our  supply  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  Vir- 
ginia. 

Governor  Hoard.  Have  you  noticed  any  particular 
improvement  in  the  mutton  character  of  the  sheep  you  have 
received  during  this  year  ? 

Mr.  Hollis.     From  some  sections  there  is,  others  not. 

Governor  Hoard.  From  what  sections  do  you  find  an 
improvement  ? 

Mr.  Hollis.  From  some  parts  of  the  West  and  some 
sections  in  Canada. 

Governor  Hoard.     I  mean,  of  course,  in  the  eating  quality. 

Mr,  Hollis.  Yes,  sir ;  we  see  quite  an  improvement  in 
the  sheep  coming  from  Virginia  and  Tennessee. 


26 

Governor  Hoard.  Do  you  attril)ute  it  to  improved  l^reed- 
ing? 

Mr.  HoLLis.     Yes,  sir. 

The  CiiAiKMAX.  Well,  gentlemen,  we  have  learned  that 
there  is  a  demand  for  mutton,  and  we  want  to  learn  how  to 
raise  it,  and  we  want  to  know  how  to  keep  out  troul)lesome 
and  dangerous  intruders.  Mr.  Sessions,  I  think,  is  })re- 
pared  to  talk  a  little  about  fencing. 

Secretary  Sessions.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  of  the  opinion 
that  the  proposition  advanced  l)y  the  lecturer  that  the  fence 
question  has  had  considera])le  influence  in  the  decadence  of 
sheep  keeping  in  Massachusetts  is  correct.  As  I  go  among 
farmers  and  talk  about  the  sheep  industry  they  reply 
to  me,  "We  cannot  keep  them  anywhere;  it  will  cost  so 
much  to  fence  them  in  or  fence  them  out  that  it  is  a  nui- 
sance ;  and  without  fences  we  do  not  know  where  we  shall 
find  them  in  the  morning  or  in  the  evening."  Now,  this  is 
a  serious  prol>lem,  as  the  lecturer  has  pointed  out.  The 
fences  in  the  more  rural  and  farming  districts  of  the  State 
are  of  the  character  which  he  has  noted, — the  old  Vir- 
ginia rail  fence  and  stone  wall ;  and  every  one  who  has 
had  exi:)erience  with  sheep  knows  that  a  stone  wall  is  of 
very  little  use,  unless  it  is  a  very  expensive  wall,  l)uilt 
perpendicular  on  the  side  towards  the  sheep.  And  then, 
again,  the  old  Virginia  fence  that  was  a  good  fence  when 
it  was  first  ])uilt,  becomes  old  and  dilapidated  and  costs 
a  great  deal  for  repairs  ;  and  when  you  have  got  to  refence 
a  pasture  or  make  repairs  to  any  great  extent,  the  cost 
will  be  enough  to  deter  a  beginner  from  undertaking  to 
raise  sheep. 

Now,  the  essayist  also  alluded  to  a  new  material  for  fenc- 
ing,—  l)arl)ed  wire.  There  is  in  the  minds  of  some  })eople, 
many  people,  ])erhaps,  a  })rejudice  against  l)arbed  wire, 
))ecause  of  its  liability  to  injure  any  animal ;  })ut  my  own 
experience  teaches  me  that  that  objection  does  not  apply  to 
sheep.  I  have  fenced  sheep  for  years  with  l)arbed  wire,  and 
I  never  knew  a  sliee})  to  be  injured  ))y  it.  Occasionally  a 
sheep  will  be  caught  by  it,  and  perliai)s  a  trifle  of  wool  will 
be  pulled  oft",  but  the  waste  and  sutt'ering  that  comes  to  the 
sheep  from  that  cause  is  trifling. 


27- 

Now,  of  course  the  question  of  fencing  in  sheep  with  any 
kind  of  fence  depends  upon  its  cost  and  its  adaptability  to 
the  end  in  view ;  and  with  us  I  think  the  question  of  cost  is 
really  the  one  to  be  considered,  for  it  is  perfectly  patent  to 
every  man  that  l)arl)ed-\vire  fence  can  l)e  so  constructed  as 
to  turn  sheep.  There  is  another  point  a])out  this  barbed- 
wire  fence  which  does  not  apply  to  a  fence  of  any  other 
material,  and  that  is,  that  it  can  be  made  so  as  to  turn  dogs. 
I  think  it  is  perfectly  feasil)le  to  construct  a  fence  that  will 
turn  dogs  ;  and  the  cheapness  of  the  material  as  now  fur- 
nished ])y  the  manufacturer  is  such  that  the  cost  of  a  fence 
that  will  not  only  turn  sheep  but  protect  them  from  dogs  is 
comparatively  small.  I  have  some  tigures  which  I  have 
collated  from  information  obtained  from  different  parties ; 
and,  having  applied  to  them  my  own  experience,  obser- 
vation and  judgment,  I  believe  the  estimates  are  reliable 
considering  the  circumstances  under  which  they  are  made. 
Of  course,  in  making  an  estimate  of  the  possil)le  or  the  prob- 
able cost  of  a  certain  kind  of  fence,  the  estimate  must  be 
made  upon  some  delinite  set  of  circumstances ;  and  it  is  only 
safe  to  predicate  upon  the  most  favorable  circumstances, 
because  the  -amount  of  ol)stacles  to  be  overcome  will  vary  in 
different  circumstances  and  under  the  different  conditions  of 
difl'erent  farmers,  and  that  must  be  calculated  by  the  indi- 
vidual himself,  he  only  knowing  what  the  obstacles  are.  I 
refer  to  the  cost  of  digging  post-holes,  the  cost  of  overcom- 
ing the  difficulty  of  uneven  ground,  getting  through  bushes, 
and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  These  figures  were  based  largely 
upon  a  statement  of  the  cost  of  eighty  rods  of  six-wire  fence 
built  a1)out  two  years  ago  by  Mr.  Henry  Green  of  Hadley, 
Mass.  He  says  there  has  not  been  a  single  dog  in  the  pas- 
ture since  the  fence  was  finished.  The  four  lower  wires  are 
placed  nearer  together  than  the  two  upper  ones.  The  fence 
is  four  feet  high  and  the  posts  one  rod  apart,  which  is  suffi- 
cient to  support  a  barbed-wire  fence.  The  wire  cost  4  cents 
per  rod ;  the  staples  1  cent  per  rod ;  the  posts  cost  7  cents 
each.  Mr.  Green  says  that  two  men  can  set  the  posts  and 
string  the  wire  for  twenty-five  rods  in  a  day.  The  cost  of 
labor  per  day  is  say  $1.50  per  man,  or  at  the  rate  of  12  cents 
per  rod.     So  we  have  as  the  cost  per  rod  :  six  strands  of 


28 

l)arl)ed  wire,  at  4  cents,  24  cents ;  staples,  1  cent ;  one  po.st, 
7  cents ;  labor  setting  povsts  and  stringing  wire,  12  cents. 
Total,  44  cents.  This,  remenil)er,  is  a  dog-proof  as  well  as 
a  sheep-proof  fence. 

I  have  also  received,  at  my  request,  a  price-list  from  the 
Washburn  &  Moen  Manufacturing  Company,  Worcester, 
which  gives  the  cost  of  first-(|uality  galvanized  Glidden 
barbed  wire  at  4  cents  per  pound,  and  they  state  that  it 
weighs  one  pound  per  rod,  and  their  discount  for  cash  will 
cover  the  freight.  So  that  Mr.  Green's  estimate  of  4  cents 
per  rod  is  borne  out  by  the  price-list  of  the  largest  manu- 
facturing establishment  of  the  kind  in  the  State. 

I  have  also  a  statement  from  Prof.  W.  P.  Brooks  of  the 
Massachusetts  Agricultural  College  that  one  man  set  the 
posts  (one  rod  apart)  and  strung  the  wire  for  sixty  rods 
of  five-strand  wire  fence  on  the  college  farm  in  less  than  two 
days.  This  proves  that  the  lal^or  estimate  in  the  first  instance 
is  a  fair  one. 

These  statements  corresi)ond  with  my  own  experience. 
They  are  for  work  done  where  the  soil  is  not  ston}^  or  under- 
laid with  hard-pan.  Allowance  nuist  of  course  l)e  made  for 
such  obstacles. 

From  the  foregoing  I  calculate  that  it  will  cost  to  fence  a 
square  lot  of  ten  acres  (one  hundred  and  sixty  rods)  Avith 
six  wires  and  posts  $70.40,  or,  per  acre,  $7.04.  I  am  satis- 
fied that  five  wires  can  he  so  arranged  as  to  be  a  dog-proof 
fence  as  well  as  a  sheep-proof  fence  ;  and  therefore  I  have 
made  a  calculation  of  the  cost  of  a  five-wire  fence,  which 
amounts  to  $62.40  for  a  square  lot  often  acres,  or  $6.24  per 
acre.  As  you  all  know,  the  larger  the  field  the  less  the  dis- 
tance around  it.  I  have  on  that  account  made  calculations 
for  several  sizes.  To  fence  a  square  lot  of  twenty  acres 
(two  hundred  and  twenty-six  rods),  six  wires,  with  i)osts, 
$99.44,  or  a  cost  per  acre  of  $4.97  ;  with  five  wires  and 
posts,  $88.14,  or  a  cost  per  acre  of  $4.41. 

But  there  is  another  set  of  conditions  on  many  of  our 
pastures,  especially  upon  the  hills  in  the  western  }iart  of 
the  State  and  upon  the  pine  jilains  of  that  section,  where 
the  pastures  have  l)een  neglected  and  considerable  timl)er  has 
started,  and  where  a  line  of  trees  will  l)e  found  along  the  line 


29 

of  the  proposed  fence,  so  that  in  many  instances  posts  can  be 
dispensed  with  by  stringing  the  wire  on  trees.  Of  course  the 
trees  would  not  be  at  regular  distances  in  all  cases ;  but  by 
having  posts  every  six,  eight,  or  even  ten  rods,  the  inter- 
vening supports  can  l)e  made  of  stakes  which  can  be  driven, 
with  the  help  of  a  ])ar  to  make  the  holes,  at  a  comparatively 
trifling  cost,  and  the  material  can  l)e  gotten  from  the  trees 
as  you  go  along,  I  have  therefore  made  a  calculation  here, 
leaving  out  the  posts  and  the  cost  of  setting  the  posts,  so  that 
persons  having  i)astures  situated  in  the  way  I  have  described 
may  reduce  the  necessary  cost  of  fencing  very  consideraljly. 
My  calculations  are  as  follows  :  — 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  20  acres,  six  wires  (226  rods),  posts,  $99.44 

Cost  per  acre, 4.97 

With  five  wires  and  ijosts,  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  88.14 

Cost  per  acre, 4.41 

To  fence  a  squai-e  lot  of  20  acres,  six  wires,  where  trees  take 
the  place  of  posts,  discounting  cost  of  posts  and  one-half 
cost  of  labor,    .         .         .         .        .         .         .         .        .         .' 70.06 

Cost  i^er  acre, 3.60 

With  five  wires  on  trees,     .         .         .         .        .         .        .        .  58.76 

With  five  wires  on  trees,  per  acre, 2.94 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  30  acres  (277  rods),  posts,  six  wires, .  $121.88 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  30  acres  (277  rods),  posts,  five  wires, .  108.03 

Cost  j)er  acre,  six   wires,     .         .         .         .         .         .        .         .  4.06 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires, 3 .  93 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  30  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  six 

wires, 85.87 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  30  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  five 

wires, 72.02 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, 2 .  86 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires 2.40 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  50  acres  (358  rods),  posts,  six  wires,  $157.52 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  50  acres  (358  rods),  i^osts,  five  wires,  139.62 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, 3.16 

Cost-per  acre,  five  wires, 2.79 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  50  acres,  without  posts   (trees),  six 

wires, 110.98 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  50  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  five 

wires, 93.08 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, 2.22 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires, 1.86 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  75  acres  (437  rods),  posts,  six  wires,  |192.28 
To  fence  a  square  lot  of  75  acres  (437  rods),  posts,  five  wires,       170.43 


30 


Cost  i)er  acre,  six  wires, $2 .  56 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wii'es,     .         .        .        .         .         .        .         .  2.27 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  75  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  six 

wires, 135.47 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  75  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  five 

wires,        . .        .113.62 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, .        .  1.81 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires, 1.51 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  100  acres  (503  rods),  posts,  six  wires,  $221.32 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  100  acres  (503  rods),  posts, five  wires,  196.17 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, 2.21 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires, 1 .  96 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  100  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  six 

wires, 155.93 

To  fence  a  S(]uare  lot  of  100  acres,  Avithout  posts  (trees),  five 

wires, 130.78 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, 1 .  55 

Cost  per  aci-e,  five  wires, 1.31 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  200  acres  (716  rods),  posts,  six  wires,  $315.04 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  200  acres  (716  rods),  posts, five  wires,  279.24 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, 1 .  57 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires, 1.39 

To  fence  a  scjuare  lot  of  200  acres,  without  posts   (trees),  six 

wires, 221.96 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  200  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  five 

wires, 186.16 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, 1.11 

Cost  i^er  acre,  five  wires, .93 

To  fenceasquare  lot  of  500  acres  (1,131  rods),  posts,  six  wires,  $497.64 

To  fence  a  s(iuare  lot  of  500  acres  (1,131  rods),  posts,  five  wires,  441 .09 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires,      ........  .99 

Cost  i)er  acre,  five  wires,     ........  -88 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  500  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  six 

wires, 350.61 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  500  acres,  Avithout  posts  (trees),  five 

wires, 294.06 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, -70 

Cost  per  aci-e,  five  wires, -59 

To  fence  a  square  lot  of  1,000  acres  (1,600  rods),  posts,  six 

wires, $704.00 

To  fence  a  S(]uare  lot  of  1,000  acres  (1,600  rods),  posts,  five 

wires, 024.00 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, -70 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires, -62 

To  fence  a  squai-e  lot  of  1,000  acres,  without  posts  (trees),  six 

wires 496.00 


31 


To  fence  a  square  lot  of  1,000  acres,  without  posts  (trees)  five 

wires, $416.00 

Cost  per  acre,  six  wires, .49 

Cost  per  acre,  five  wires, .41 

So  you  see  it  does  not  take  Ji  fortune  to  fence  a  laro'e  lot. 
And  this,  rememlier,  is  a  dog-proof  fence  as  well  as  a  sheep- 
proof  fence. 

The  Chairman.  Well,  gentlemen,  we  have  not  only  found 
that  we  can  afford  to  raise  sheep  in  Massachusetts,  but  we 
have  found  out  by  actual  figures  that  it  is  cheaper  to  build 
a  dog-proof  fence  than  it  is  to  lay  up  a  stone  wall. 

Mr.  Grinnell.  Does  anj^body  know  the  cost  of  a  board 
fence  built  of  boards  say  six  inches  wide,  four  on  a  post? 

•  The  Chairman.     Mr.  Horton,  will  you  kindly  tell  us  the 
expense  of  a  board  fence  ? 

Mr.  Horton.  It  is  very  easy  to  get  at  the  expense  of 
such  a  fence  as  that.  The  boards  for  a  four-board  fence  with 
us  cost  on  an  average  about  $16  per  thousand  feet,  which 
would  be  $1.60  for  a  hundred  feet  offence.  It  takes  double 
the  number  of  posts  that  it  does  for  a  wire  fence,  and  the 
posts  require  to  be  better  posts  than  for  a  wire  fence. 
Under  ordinary  circumstances  a  l>oard  and  post  fence  four 
feet  high  would  cost  something  over  a  dollar  a  rod, — from 
$1.06  to  $1.10,  using  good  material.  Figuring  it  upon  that 
l)asis,  it  would  cost  about  three  times  Avhat  it  would  to  make 
a  wire  fence. 

The  Chairman.  And,  instead  of  keeping  dogs  out,  it 
invites  them  to  jump  through.  Gentlemen,  we  want  to  cover 
the  ground  of  sheep  husbandry  as  carefully  as  we  can,  and  I 
will  call  on  Mr.  J.  D.  Avery  of  Buckland,  who  has  been  a 
practical  and  successful  shepherd  for  a  good  many  years. 

J.  D.  Avery.  Mr.  Chairman,  s(mie  few  weeks  ago  I 
received  a  line  from  the  essayist  suggesting  that  I  make  a 
compari son  between  dairy i  ng  and  sheep  gro wi ng .  I  attempted 
to  do  this,  but  have  not  succeeded,  for  the  reason  that  the 
dairymen  were  not  prepared  to  give  me  figures  showing 
their  receipts  and  expenses.  I  have  figures  from  three  sheep 
farmers,  showing  their  receipts,  and  in  one  instance  the 
writer  gives  me  his  expenses,  and  it  may  be  interesting  to 
you  to  hear  those  figures  read. 

The  first  flock  to  which  I  will  call  your  attention  consisted 


32 

of  21  breeding  ewes  in  the  ye;ir  1<S1)0.  They  were  fed  upon 
rowen  hay  twice  a  day  during  the  winter  till  the  lirst  of 
March ;  after  that  they  were  fed  oftener,  and  a  daily  ration 
of  grain  was  added,  consisting  of  ))ran  four  quarts,  oats  four 
quarts,  and  corn  two  quarts.  They  were  turned  to  })asture 
May  1.     The  receipts  that  year  were  as  follows  :  — 

28   lamljs,  average  weight  August  1,  91  pounds,  sold   at  Gi 

cents  per  pound, f  165. 62 

168  pounds  wool,  at  22  cents, 36.96 

Total, f202.58 

which  is  very  nearly  $10  per  head.  This  gentleman  gave 
me  no  figures  of  the  expense  except  the  grain,  which  amounted 
to  only  $9  for  the  21  sheep. 

Question.     Where  Avere  those  sheep  kept? 

Mr.  Avery.     This  flock  was  in  the  town  of  Shelhurne. 

Question.     What  was  the  breed  of  sheep? 

Mr.  AvEKY.  A  high-grade  South  Down.  I  have  known 
this  gentleman's  flock  for  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years,  and 
he  has  used  nothing  but  the  very  best  of  pure-1)red  South 
Down  sires.  He  has  paid  on  an  average  probal)ly  $2o  for 
those  rams,  used  them  two  years,  then  changed  them  to 
prevent  in-breeding,  and  he  has  replenished  his  flock  l)y 
keeping  the  best  of  the  lam])s.  I  figure  those  lambs  as  all 
sold  at  G^  cents  per  pound  ;  he  did  not  sell  them  all,  but  of 
course  it  is  perfectly  fair  to  figure  them  at  that  price.  He 
reserved  five  of  the  liest  of  the  lambs,  which  averaged  100 
pounds  apiece. 

Question.     At  what  age  ? 

Mr.  Avery.  They  were  dropped  in  March,  and  they 
were  sold  the  first  of  August.  Something  like  five  months, 
perhaps.  He  has  improved  his  flock  in  that  way,  by  using  the 
best  pure-bred  sires  and  selecting  the  l)est  of  the  laml)s. 
Now,  these  lambs  would  have  brought  him  6^  cents  a 
pound  per  head  if  he  had  sold  them,  and  most  of  us  would 
prol)alily  have  thought  that  was  too  umch  of  a  temptation 
to  resist,  and  would  have  let  them  go  to  the  butcher ;  l)ut, 
if  we  are  going  to  get  a  flock  of  sheep  which  will  give  us  the 
result  which  this  flock  gave  him,  I  do  not  know  of  any  way 
that  we  can  get  them  except  to  raise  them  in   this  way.     I 


33 

have  made  an  estimate  of  the  expensje.  The  grain  as  he  has 
given  it  to  me  would  amount  to  about  $9  ;  hay,  estimated  at 
6^  tons,  at  $10  per  ton,  $63  ;  pasturing  21  sheep  28  weeks, 
at  5  cents  each  per  week  (which  I  think  is  a  very  lil^eral 
estimate),  $29.40  ;  service  of  ram,  $5.25  ;  making  a  total  of 
$106.65,  which  leaves  a  balance  of  receipts  above  expenses 
of  $95.93. 

Question.     He  got  about  $1.75  each  for  the  wool? 

Mr.  Avery.     Yes,  sir  ;  just  about  that. 

The  Chairmax.  That  proves  just  what  I  have  been  trying 
to  impress  upon  the  farmers  of  ^lassachusetts  for  the  last 
eight  or  ten  years,  with  very  poor  success ;  that  is,  that  any 
farmer  who  has  a  good  flock  of  sheep  and  who  knows  how  to 
treat  them  as  Mr.  Avery  and  the  gentleman  who  has  given 
the  statement  which  has  l)een  read  here  do,  Avith  average 
good  luck,  may  reasonably  expect  to  get  an  income  of  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  investment. 

QuESTiox.  Is  that  a  continuous  income  from  the  sheep,  — 
an  income  that  comes  every  day? 

The  Chairmax.     It  does  not  come  every  day. 

Mr.  Avery.  It  conies  perhaps  twice  a  year.  I  have  a 
statement  from  another  gentleman  who  raises  what  we  term 
early  lambs,  or  spring  lambs,  which  are  turned  to  market 
without  ever  being  turned  to  grass.  In  this  case  the  lambs 
were  dropped  in  Deceml)er  and  carried  to  market  in  March 
and  April.  Flock  No.  2  numl)ered  in  1890  17  breeding- 
ewes.     The  receipts  from  these  17  ewes  were  as  follows  :  — 

150  pounds  wool,  at  23  cents, $34.50 

16  lambs,  at  f9.06i, 145.00 

3  lambs,  at  15, 15.00 

Total, $194.05 

I  presume  those  three  lambs  which  he  kept  came  later, 
and  were  reserved  to  replenish  his  stock.  I  made  an  esti- 
mate of  the  expense  of  this  flock  also,  as  follows  :  — 

5y^3  tons  of  hay,  at  $10  per  ton, $51.00 

Grain  for  sheep, 25.50 

Grain  for  lambs, 16.00 

Pastm-ing  17  sheep  28  weeks,  at  3  cents  each,    .        .        .        .  14.28 

Service  of  ram,             4.25 

Total, $111. Oa 

Balance  of  receipts  above  exi)enses,  $83.47. 


34 

In  this  case  there  were  no  lambs  to  l^e  pastured,  and  the 
ewes  could  be  |)astured  for  about  one-half  the  cost  of  those 
that  have  lanil)s,  as  lanil)s  must  have  the  ])est  of  pasture. 
This  flock  of  sheep  was  produced  l)v  crossing  a  Spanish 
Merino  ram  upon  grade  Cotswold  and  Leicester  ewes,  and 
those  ewes  will  weigh  from  125  to  150  pounds.  They  drop 
their  laml)s  very  early,  most  of  them  in  December  ;  and  they 
are  ready  for  market  early,  and  bring  a  better  price  than 
those  which  are  dropped  later. 

Mr.  Ware.  It  will  be  noticed,  probably,  that  there  has 
been  no  credit  given  for  the  manure  during  this  time,  which 
is  a  fair  item  of  credit. 

Mr.  AvEHY.  I  have  ofl'set  the  manure  against  the  lalwr, 
which  is  a  very  liberal  allowance  for  the  lal)or.  I  should  be 
very  glad  to  take  a  thousand  sheej^  and  take  care  of  them 
for  one-half  the  manure,  if  any  one  would  furnish  the  hay 
and.  grain. 

The  CiiAiiiMAX.  You  mean  to  l)e  liberal  in  your  esti- 
mates ? 

Mr.  AvEitY.     Yes,  sir;  I  mean  to  be. 

QuESTiox.  I  Avould  like  to  ask  Mr.  Avery,  if  he  increased 
his  flock  four  or  live  fokl,  if  he  Avould  get  the  same  result  as 
from  a  smaller  flock  V 

Mr.  AvEUY.  Prol)al)ly  not.  Sheep  will  do  l)etter  in 
small  flocks.  I  do  not  think  the  result  woukl  l)e  as  good 
with  a  large  flock.  I  think  it  is  usually  considered  in  that 
light. 

Flock  No.  o  consisted  of  53  ewes,  6  lambs  and  1  ram, 
making  00  in  all.     The  expenses  were  as  follows  : — 

Grain  for  sheep  and  lambs, $104.50 

Hay,  estimated  at  $2  per  head,  .         .        .         .     '  .        .        .120.00 

Pasturing  60  sheep  28  weeks,  at  3  cents, 50.40 

Service  of  ram, 13.25 

Total, f288.15 

The  owner  of  this  flock  gave  me  an  estimate  of  the  expenses. 
He  said  the  grain  which  he  fed  to  his  sheep  was  kept  separate, 
so  that  he  knew  just  what  his  grain  cost  him  which  he  fed  to 
his  sheep  and  lambs,  and  it  amounted  to  the  sum  I  have 
given.     I  will  say  that  he  also  raises  what  we  term  early 


B5 

lambs.  His  receipts  for  lambs  and  wool  sold  amounted  to 
$629.50.  He  did  not  divide  this  up.  for  me.  I  had  asked 
him  in  previous  years  what  he  was  getting  for  his  lambs,  but 
he  never  seemed  inclined  to  tell  me,  and  he  has  not  here. 
He  gave,  as  the  total  receipts  for  lam1)s  and  wool,  $629.50, 
which  you  will  see  is  almost  $10.50  per  head.  Balance  of 
receipts  above  expenses,  $341.35. 

These  sheep  are  the  Vermont  Merino.  They  are  a  very 
superior  flock  of  sheep  for  that  breed.  They  will  weigh 
prol)al)ly  100  or  110  pounds  each,  and  probably  shear  from 
eight  to  ten  pounds  of  wool  each.  They  drop  their  lambs 
in  November  and  Decemlier.  I  saw  the  gentleman  two 
weeks  ago,  and  he  had  nine  lambs  at  that  time,  and  more 
coming  right  along.  He  has  the  advantage  of  the  rest  of 
us  in  marketing  his  lambs,  or  has  taken  the  advantage,  liy 
selling  his  lambs  dressed  directly  to  the  hotels  in  this  city. 
He  has  a  son  here  who  has  assisted  in  tinding  him  a  market, 
and  I  presume  he  gets  one  or  two  dollars  a  head  more  than 
.the  rest  of  us.     I  think  he  must. 

Governor  Hoard.     Is  the  sire  a  Merino  also? 

Mr.  Avery.  Xo,  sir.  In  all  the  cases  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  the  sire  is  a  pure-bred  South  Down. 

The  Chairman .  Mr.  Avery,  won't  you  give  us  an  account 
of  your  own  flock,  which  is  probably  one  of  the  best  in  the 
State  ? 

Mr .•  Avery.  Xo,  sir;  I  cannot  show  as  good  figures  as 
these  men. 

The  Chairmax.  These  are  all  too  good.  You  know 
people  will  not  believe  some  of  these  stories. 

Mr.  Avery.  Well,  I  have  not  prepared  any  figures  from 
my  own  flock. 

Secretary  Sessions.     How  many  do  you  keep? 

Mr.  Avery.     I  keep  from  100  to  300. 

Secretary  vSessions.  Your  experience  as  far  as  you  could 
give  it  would  be  very  interesting,  because  your  flock  is  a 
large  one  compared  with  those  which  you  have  mentioned. 

Mr.  Avery.  I  can  tell  you  al)out  Avhat  I  get  for  my 
lambs,  and  about  what  I  think  it  costs  to  raise  them.  The 
best  that  I  have  ever  done  in  any  3'ear  was  some  five  or  six 
years  ago,  when  I  raised  200  lambs  from  180  ewes,  and  sold 


36 

those  laml)s  for  $1,()00,  unci  my  wool  averaged  me  about 
$l.oO  per  head.  But  I  estimate  the  expense  of  keeping  sheep 
higher  than  most  farmers  do.  I  have  never  weighed  and 
kept  an  accurate  account  of  the  grain,  but  I  think  it  costs  me 
a])out  $i^  per  head  for  grain  for  the  ewes  and  lambs,  which 
is  more  than  a  dollar  a  head  higher  than  this  gentleman 
estimates  of  whom  I  have  last  spoken ;  but  he  says  he  does 
not  know  what  the  exact  cost  was.  Perhaps  he  did  not  feed 
as  much  grain  as  I  do. 

The  Chairmax.     Do  you  feed  grain  in  summer? 

Mr.  AvEiiY.     Xo,  sir. 

Mr.  Grixxp:ll.  AYhen  does  he  turn  his  laml)s?  That 
makes  a  difierence. 

Mr.  Avery.  His  lambs  are  drop})od  in  Xoveml)or  and 
Deceml)er,  nearly  all  of  them,  perhajjs  .^onie  as  late  as  Jan- 
uary ;  and  they  are  marketed  in  March  and  April  mostly, 
some  i)erhaps  as  late  as  May. 

Hon.  JoHX  E.  Ku.ssELL.  Do  you  keep  800  sheep  in  one 
flock? 

Mr.  AvERV.  Xo,  sir ;  I  do  not.  In  the  winter  my  flock 
is  divided  u])  into  pens  of  perhaps  25,  although  perhaps  75 
or  100  will  l)e  connected,  with  just  a  board  fence,  you  might 
say,  l)etween  them.  The  hay  I  estimate  at  $3  per  head  and 
the  grain  at  $8  per  head  for  sheep  which  raise  early  lambs.  I 
know  that  is  a  higher  estimate  than  most  farmers  make,  and 
perha})s  it  is  too  high.  I  have  thought  sometimes  "that  I 
would  experiment  in  that  direction,  and  weigh  my  hay  and 
keep  an  accurate  account  of  the  grain  ;  l)ut  it  would  be  quite 
an  undertaking,  especially  to  keep  an  account  of  the  grain, 
where  there  is  a  mixed  stock  and  the  stock  are  all  fed  from 
one  l)in. 

Secretary  Sessioxs.  AVhat  is  your  estimate  for  pas- 
turage ? 

Mr.  Avery.  I  have  flgured  the  cost  at  o  cents  })er  week 
for  27  or  '2H  weeks,  but  it  does  not  actually  cost  me  that. 
1  hire  pastures,  and  in  that  way  I  get  them  pastured  for 
perhai)s  2  cents  a  week  sometimes. 

Secretary  Sessioxs.     What  is  your  pasture? 

Mr.  Avery.     It  is  an  old  })asture,  hilly  and  rough. 

Qlestiox.     Do  ^^ou  take  any  precautions  against  dogs? 


37 

Mr.  Avery.  No,  sir ;  I  have  not  taken  any  precautions 
against  dogs,  and  never  have  had  any  serious  trouble.  In 
some  sections  of  our  county  some  very  valuable  flocks  have 
been  entirely  ruined  by  dogs.  I  have  fortunately  escaped 
an^'thing  of  that  sort. 

There  is  one  point  to  which  the  essayist  alluded  which  I 
wish  to  emphasize,  and  that  is,  that  the  keeping  of  sheep 
requires  constant  care  and  attention.  I  think  there  is  where 
many  of  us  fail.  We  think  that  we  can  slight  the  sheep ; 
that  they  can  get  along  almost  any  way,  and  shirk  for  them- 
selves. That  is  not  so.  They  require  a  certain  amount  of 
care.  They  do  not  require  anywhere  near  as  much  care  as 
a  herd  of  cows,  the  labor  is  not  nearly  so  much ;  but  they 
should  have  just  as  good  care  as  you  give  your  cows.  If 
you  neglect  your  dairy  cows  for  a  day  or  two,  the  milk  pail 
will  tell  the  story ;  but  it  is  not  so  with  sheep  ;  none  but  a 
practised  eye  will  notice  the  difference.  But,  if  you  are 
raising  early  lambs  especially,  those  lambs  will  very  soon 
show  any  neglect,  and  if  they  are  neglected  for  a  short  time 
they  never  will  recover  from  it.  There  is  no  way  to  get 
along  with  them  and  raise  them  successfully  but  to  give  them 
good  care  and  attention  and  good  feed,  and  fit  them  for  mar- 
ket as  soon  as  possible.  The  sooner  and  the  younger  they 
€an  he  prepared  for  market,  the  greater  will  be  the  profit. 
It  costs  less  to  fit  laml)s  for  market  if  you  do  it  in  eight  or 
ten  weeks  than  it  does  to  ])e  tAvelve  or  fourteen  about  it. 

A.  J.  BucKLix  (of  Adams).  AVhat  is  your  method  of 
housing  in  the  winter?  How  large  an  extent  of  shed  room 
do  you  require  ? 

Mr.  Avery.  My  sheep  sheds  are  old-fashioned,  as  you 
might  say.  The  sheds  were  built  before  I  went  on  the  ferm, 
probably  thirty  or  fort}"  years  ago,  and  they  are  not  remark- 
ably warm  ;  but  still,  by  fixing  them  up  a  little  I  make  them 
warm  enough,  —  as  warm  as  I  care  to  have  them.  I  hardly 
€ver  lose  a  lamb  in  cold  weather  on  account  of  ofettino;  chilled. 
As  to  the  amount  of  space  which  they  require,  I  have  in  one 
pen  now,  which  is  26  feet  square,  50  ewes,  and  I  think  that 
is  perhaps  as  close  as  they  should  l)e  ;  perhaps  more  room 
would  be  better  for  them,  but  still  they  will  do  very  well 
with  that  amount  of  room.     After  they  drop  their  lambs  and 


38 

the  laiiil),s  l)egin  to  eat,  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  them 
more  room. 

Governor  Hoard.  I  would  like  to  ask  the  gentleman  how 
many  mutton  sheep  can  he  kept  safely  in  one  flock  ? 

Mr.  Avery.     Do  you  mean  in  the  pasture,  or  in  the  l)arn  ? 

Governor  Hoard.     In  the  pasture  flrst. 

Mr.  Avery.  'Well,  the  largest  number  I  have  kept  as  a 
rule  is  75  or  80. 

Governor  Hoard.     How  many  in  winter  quarters? 

Mr.  Avery.  The  largest  numl^er  which  I  have  in  one 
pen  at  the  present  time  is  50.  I  do  not  know  but  they  might 
be  kept  in  larger  numbers  safely,  but  1  do  not  think  it  is  as 
well.  If  they  are  kept  in  small  flocks  it  prevents  their 
crowding. 

The  Chairmax.  If  Mr.  Avery  will  allow  me,  I  have  kept 
as  many  as  500  in  one  flock  without  any  detriment,  where 
there  was  plenty  to  eat  in  the  pasture.  In  winter  I  should 
always  divide  them  up  into  flocks  of  30  or  40,  although  I  am 
at  present  keeping  175  in  one  flock,  and  they  do  very  well. 
You  have  got  to  use  lots  of  common  sense  with  sheej),  besides 
care . 

Governor  Hoard.  Have  you  had  any  experience  in  feed- 
ing ensilage  to  sheep  ? 

Mr.  Avery.     I  have  not. 

Mr.  Ha  vex.     What  l)reed  are  your  sheep? 

]Mr.  Avery.     ]My  sheep  are  grade  South  Downs. 

Mr.  Havex.     Have  you  tried  other  breeds? 

Mr.  Avery.  I  have  tried  the  ]Merino,  and  had  very  fair 
success  with  them. 

Governor  Hoard.  In  Wisconsin  we  have  had  (piite  dis- 
astrous results  in  feeding  sheep  when  with  lamb  too  heavily 
with  ensilage .  It  being  a  carbonaceous  food,  it  did  not  seem 
to  give  the  proper  growth.  Can  you  house  mutton  sheep 
closely  with  safety?  And,  in  connection  with  that  matter 
of  housing,  I  want  to  know  whether  you  can  secure  thorough 
ventilation  in  your  houses  in  winter  ? 

Mr.  Avery.  Well,  if  they  are  housed  closely,  it  is  very 
necessary  and  important  that  the  })ens  should  be  ventilated 
in  some  way.  There  are  very  few  days  in  the  winter  when 
some  of  the  windows  of  my  sheep  pen  are  not  open. 


39 

Governor  Hoard.  Do  you  keep  them  constantly  bedded, 
so  that  they  shall  not  lie  in  filth  ? 

Mr.  Avery.     I  do,  most  certainly. 

Governor  Hoard.     What  do  you  use  for  bedding? 

Mr.  Avery.  I  use  l)rakes,  as  a  rule,  which  I  mow  in  the 
pastures. 

Governor  Hoard,  How  would  you  handle  and  feed  a 
ewe  when  she  lambs  in  Deceml^er,  for  instance,  and  j^ou 
want  to  prepare  that  lamb  for  early  spring  mutton  ? 

Mr.  Avery.  I  should  feed  her  well  from  the  time  she 
went  to  the  barn.  I  should  want  her  to  go  into  winter 
quarters  in  good  condition  ;  and,  if  I  had  i)lenty  of  fine 
early-cut  hay  and  rowen,  that  would  1)e  all  I  would  care  for 
until  after  lambing.  Soon  after  the  lamb  was  dropped  I 
should  ccmimence  to  feed  a  little  grain,  and  the  amount  of 
grain  would  depend  upon  the  quality  of  the  hay.  1  have 
fed  as  high  as  a  quart, — I  have  fed  higher  than  that.  I 
once  fed  a  few  ewes  which  had  two  laniljs  each,  —  I  was  fat- 
tening the  ewes  as  well  as  the  laml)s  for  market,  —  I  fed 
them  over  two  quarts  per  day. 

Governor  Hoard.     What  kind  of  grain? 

Mr.  Avery.  It  was  linseed  meal,  cotton-seed  meal  and 
provender,  —  corn  and  oats  ground  together  and  mixed 
in  equal  parts.  It  was  more  grain,  I  suppose,  than  most 
people  would  feed  to  sheep ;  but  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  those  were  large  ewes,  and  suckling  two  lamias  each. 

Question.     Do  you  feed  roots  at  all  ? 

Mr.  Avery.  No,  sir ;  I  do  not,  although  I  think  they 
are  very  excellent  food  for  sheep. 

Governor  Hoard.     Do  you  feed  any  peas  ? 

Mr.  Avery.  No,  sir ;  I  do  not.  I  have  had  no  experi- 
ence in  growing  peas. 

Governor  Hoard.  Has  any  gentleman  in  the  room  had 
any  experience  in  that  direction  ?  Several  gentlemen  in  the 
West  have  been  experimenting  with  peas  for  the  past  two 
years,  with  very  remarkable  success,  both  in  dairy  work  and 
in  sheep  work,  and  we  have  learned  some  things  that  we  did 
not  know  two,  three  or  four  years  ago  even.  In  ])lanting 
field  peas  plough  the  ground  in  the  fall,  selecting  not  too 
rich  soil.      In  the  spring,  as  early  as  possible,  paying  no 


40 

attention  to  early  frosts,  draa-  the  oround  thoroughly,  sow 
the  peas,  and  plough  them  under  al)out  four  inches  deep. 
After  the  i)eas  are  ploughed  under,  sow  on  the  top  fi-om 
three  pecks  to  a  bushel  of  oats  to  an  acre,  to  assist  in  holding 
up  the  peas.  Cut  the  crop  when  ready  with  an  ordinary 
mower  or  reaper.  AVe  find  that  we  can  get  from  an  acre  of 
{)eas  the  equivalent  in  value  of  4,500  pounds  of  bran. 

Mr.  Grixxell.  I  want  to  say  that  some  two  or  three 
Aveeks  ago  I  prepared  some  circulars  containing  al)Out  a 
dozen  questions,  and  sent  them  around  to  various  gentlemen 
represented  to  me  as  being  sheep  raisers.  I  sent  them  out 
by  the  hundred.  I  have  received  over  sixty  replies  to  those 
circulars.  They  contain  a  great  deal  of  very  interesting- 
matter,  which,  if  tabulated,  would  eml)race  all  that  has  1)een 
said  to  you  in  regard  to  the  keeping  of  sheep,  —  the  cost,  the 
profit,  and  so  on. 

The  CiiAiEMAX.  Well,  gentlemen,  we  are  gathering  a 
good  deal  of  information  about  the  raising  of  sheep ;  but 
there  is  one  thing  which  we  Avant  to  learn  a  little  something 
about,  and  that  is  al)out  our  old  Arab  friend.  We  have  an 
old  friend  of  the  Board  here  who  knows  more  or  less  about 
the  tarift".  I  should  like  to  hear  from  the  Hon.  John  E. 
Russell. 

Hon.  JoHX  E.  Russell  (of  Leicester).  Mr.  Chairman, 
Members  of  the  Board,  and  Gentlemen  :  It  is  eleven  years 
last  August  since  I  was  elected  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Agriculture,  and  during  that  year  I  said  several  times  in 
public,  that  if  at  the  end  of  five  years  I  had  not  increased 
the  sheep  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  by  my 
advocacy  of  sheep  husbandry  to  the  number  of  half  a  million, 
I  should  feel  that  I  had  l)een  secretary  in  vain.  After  six 
or  seven  years  I  i-etired  from  the  office,  and  there  were  about 
half  or  two-thirds  as  many  sheep  in  the  Commonwealth  as 
when  I  began  to  advoc^ite  sheej)  husbandry.  Otherwise  per- " 
haps  I  was  of  service  to  the  Commonwealth  in  my  position  ; 
I  flatter  myself  that  I  was,  but  I  did  not  increase  the  interest 
of  the  farmers  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  in  sheep  hus- 
bandry. We  had  very  animated  meetings  and  institutes  all 
over  the  Commonwealth,  but  I  notice  that  there  has  been 
one  very  great  step  of  progress  taken.     This  is  the  first  jnib- 


41 

lie  meeting  that  I  have  ever  attended  in  which  this  question 
was  discussed,  that  the  whole  matter  was  not  met  at  the  outset 
by  the  cry,  ' '  We  cannot  keep  sheep  on  account  of  dogs."  We 
have  not  heard  that  here  to-day,  and  I  take  it  that  the  farmers 
of  Massachusetts  have  got  to  the  point  where  they  consider  that 
they  can  keep  sheep  if  they  choose  to  do  so,  dogs  or  no 
dogs.  They  have  also  made  up  their  minds  that  they  can- 
not prevail  any  further  with  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts 
than  we  went  during  my  term  as  secretary,  when  we  had  the 
law  very  largely  amended  in  our  favor ;  and  we  now  have  as 
favorable  a  law  on  our  side  in  this  CommonAvealth  as  we  can 
expect  to  have,  or,  I  may  say,  as  we  are  entitled  to  have. 

I  am  glad  to  talk  upon  the  sheep  question ;  but  I  do 
not  propose  to  discuss  our  old  Arab  friend  particularly, 
because  I  do  not  recognize  that  the  tarift'  upon  wool 
has  much  to  do  with  the  sheep  husbandry  of  Massa- 
chusetts. We  do  not  raise  wool  enough  to  make  it  at  all 
important  to  us  what  the  tariff  is.  I  once  said,  amid  the 
jeers  of  a  good  many  men  who  ought  to  have  known  better, 
that  the  farmers  in  the  States  west  of  the  Mississippi  Elver,  — 
I  stated  it  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
it  is  in  the  congressional  record,  — that  the  farmers  west  of 
the  Mississippi  River  could  afford  to  keep  sheep  if  wool 
was  worth  no  more  than  hen  feathers.  Having  said  that 
there,  I  can  say  here  that  it  is  immaterial  what  the  tariff  is. 
I  might  add  to  that,  as  a  sort  of  snapper,  that  when  wool 
was  free  in  1859  it  was  worth  more  money  in  all  parts  of 
the  United  States,  considering  the  value  of  money  at  that 
time,  than  it  had  ever  been  before,  and  worth  more  money 
than  it  has  been  since  1867  under  a  high  tariff.  The  secre- 
tary says,  "or  .ever  will  be  in  the  future."  That  may 
be,  too.  I  am  glad  to  get  a  good  price  for  my  wool, 
of  course  ;  but  I  do  not  reckon  the  wool  as  an  absolute 
necessity  of  my  shee})  keeping.  I  should  keep  my  sheep 
first  for  lambs,  second  for  mutton,  next  for  the  improvement 
of  my  pastures  and  the  manure  that  I  could  get  out  of  the 
sheds ;  then  if  I  get  $125  or  $150  for  my  wool,  that  is  so 
much  addition  t^  my  profits.  I  agree  with  the  gentlemen 
who  have  spoken  here  who  have  kept  sheep,  as  I  have,  for 
some  years,  that  there  is  a  constant  annual  profit ;  not  a  daily 


42 

profit,  as  one  gentlenian  here  wanted  to  get,  although  1  have 
known  cases  where  sheep  raisers  got  a  daily  profit  by  market- 
ing the  ewes'  milk ;  but  I  do  not  think  we  need  to  do  that  in 
Massachusetts  to  make  a  })rofit.  But  the  annual  profit  of  the 
sheep  is,  we  might  almost  say,  an  aljsolute  certainty.  1  told 
a  poor  farmer  within  two  or  three  months,  that,  if  he  had 
my  flock,  which  has  never  exceeded  75  or  80,  he  could 
support  his  family,  pay  his  taxes  and  hold  a  res})ectable 
position  as  a  farmer  with  nothing  more  than  that  flock,  a 
garden,  and  what  he  could  do  on  25  acres  of  land. 

Mr.  Shaav.  I  want  to  ask  if  your  sheep  in  the  winter 
have  exercise,  or  are  they  kept  in  a  i)en  all  the  time? 

The  Chairman.  I  have  found  from  experience  that  with 
sheds  as  close  as  I  have,  allowing  about  10  square  feet  to  a 
sheep,  and  dividing  them  up  into  flocks  of  50  or  GO,  they 
need  a  small  yard  for  exercise.  The  larger  the  yard  we  can 
have,  and  keep  it  dry,  the  better. 

QuESTiox.  Has  anybody  ever  tried  soiling  sheep  as  we 
soil  cattle? 

The  Chaiii.aiax.  I  do  not  know  whether  any  other  gen- 
tleman has  done  that  or  not.  I  have  tried  it  in  a  very  small 
flock  myself. 

Governor  Hoard.  That  is  the  English  practice.  All  the 
flocks  of  England  are  soiled.  That  is,  they  haxe  a  small 
run  of  pasture,  and  generally  a  moval)le  fence  is  used.  They 
plant  green  crops  and  let  the  sheep  feed  on  them,  moving 
their  hurdles  four  feet  in  the  morning  and  at  noon,  and  eight 
feet  at  night,  and  thus  make  the  slice})  eat  everything  })er- 
fectly  clean.  In  that  way  they  feed  on  the  green  crop  and 
manure  the  field  as  they  go  along,  and  then  the  land  is 
ploughed  over  and  sowed  with  another  crop. 

The  Chairman.  I  am  not  aware  that  that  has  been  tried  in 
this  country,  except  in  an  exiierimental  Avay.  I  think  it  lias 
been  tried  at  Amherst  with  English  raj^e. 

Governor  Hoard.  There  are  some  surprising  results 
given  by  Professor  Shaw  at  Ontario  College.  A^'e  hnvQ 
commenced  to  try  it  in  Wisconsin,  so  far  with  very  flatter- 
ing results.  Professor  Shaw  makes  the  l)old  statement  that 
there  will  be  within  a  comparatively  few  years  ten  million 
shee})  fattened  in  this  country  on  ra})e,  and  he  gives  figures, 


43 

3vhich  uufoi'tunatelj  I  have  not  with  me,  which  show  very 
surprising  results  from  the  sheep  fed  on  rape ;  and  the 
growth  that  he  made  upon  lambs  and  sheep  from  New  Bruns- 
wick and  the  eastern  Province  of  Ontario  almost  passes 
belief;  but  the  figures  are  given  with  the  assurance  that  they 
are  absolutely  correct. 

The  Chairmax.  Will  Colonel  Needham  kindly  give  us 
some  account  of  his  dealings  with  sheep  in  former  years? 
I  think  he  took  a  celebrated  flock  across  the  water. 

Hon.  Daniel  Needham  (of  Groton).  I  will  occupy  a 
brief  moment.  This  is  a  subject  which  has  always  been  of 
great  interest  to  me.  I  had  something  of  a  flock  of  sheep 
in  Vermont  for  quite  a  num])er  of  years.  I  had  the  old  Con- 
sul Jarvis  sheep,  which  he  sent  to  this  country  as  early  as 
1810  or  1811.  The  l)ucks  were  sold  in  New  York  at  that 
time  for  al^out  |1,000  apiece;  the  ewes  brought  from  $100 
to  1150  and  $200.  The  sheep  which  I  took  to  Europe, 
to  which  Mr.  Grinnell  alluded  in  his  address  this  morning, 
were  the  Spanish  Merino  ;  that  is,  they  were  the  descendants 
of  the  sheep  which  were  imported  by  Consul  Jarvis.  Mr. 
George  Campbell  of  Vermont  had  travelled  with  American 
breeders  throughout  Europe  on  two  diflerent  occasions  pre- 
vious to  18G3,  when  those  sheep  were  exhibited  at  the  Ham- 
burg International  Exhibition ;  and  he  was  satisfied  that  it 
did  not  ]:)elong  to  Germany  that  she  should  have  the  exclusive 
right  to  claim  the  production  of  lilooded  Merino  sheep ;  that 
as  good  sheep  could  be  found  in  the  United  States  as  could 
be  found  there  ;  and  he  was  confident  that  he  had  as  good 
sheep  on  his  farm  as  he  saw  in  Spain,  in  Saxony  or 
Germany.  In  1863,  as  very  likely  many  of  you  may 
remember,  I  was  appointed  a  commissioner  from  Vermont 
to  go  to  the  International  Exhibition  at  Haml)urg,  to  which 
the  United  States  was  invited  to  send  sheep.  The  great 
interest  of  Vermont  in  that  exhibition  was  in  connection 
with  the  breeding  of  sheep,  and  George  Campl)ell  was  the 
only  man  in  Vermont  or  in  the  United  States  who  dared 
to  venture  on  the  sending  of  Merino  sheep  to  that  exhi- 
bition. He  sent  twelve,  and  I  went  over  in  the  same 
ship  that  carried  the  sheep  and  the  shepherd,  and  in  which 
Mr.  Campl)ell  was  also  a  passenger.     I  remember  that  there 


44 

was  a  German  l)aron  on  board  the  ship,  who  went  to  Mr, 
Campl)ell  and  said,  "1  understand  you  have  some  Merino 
sheep  that  you  are  going  to  take  to  Germany  to  compete 
with  German  Merinos?"  Mr.  Gampl^ell  said  "Yes; "and 
he  said,  "  AVell,  it  is  the  old  story  of  carrying  coals  to  Xew- 
castle," — and  we  almost  felt  that  it  was  so.  The  sheep 
reached  Hamburg  all  right,  though  they  had  been  a  little 
seasick  on  the  passage,  )>ut  they  had  eaten  reasonably 
well.  They  had  been  well  fed  with  oats  and  l^eans.  We 
always  fed  our  sheep  with  Ijeans  in  Vermont,  as  one  of 
the  best  means  of  producing  a  good  heavy  fleece  of  wool. 
Those  sheep  were  made  the  subject  of  very  general  discus- 
sion in  the  newspapers.  Mr.  Charles  L.  Flint,  who  was 
the  i)redecessor  of  Mr.  Russell,  in  the  office  of  secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  was  also  a  commissioner  to 
that  exhibition  for  the  State' of  Massachusetts.  Governor 
Wright  of  Indiana  was  the  commissioner  from  his  State 
and  from  the  United  States,  appointed  Ijy  President  Lin- 
coln ;  and  Rhode  Island  and  other  States  had  commis- 
sioners there.  When  our  sheep  got  there  they  imme- 
diately l>egan  to  be  the  Initt  of  ridicule  of  the  German  press, 
and  the}'  took  up  the  story  of  the  liaron,  that  it  was  "carrying- 
coals  to  Newcastle  ; "  that  the  United  States  —  they  did  not 
know  anything  al)out  Vermont  —  had  sent  shee})  over  to 
Europe  to  compete  with  the  Spanish  Merinos  of  Germany. 
Germany  had  had  almost  full  sway  in  the  production  of 
stock  Merino  sheep  for  more  than  thirty-live  years, — ever 
since  Spain  gave  it  up.  ^\e  nevertheless  went  to  work,  put 
our  sheep  into  pens,  and  entered  them  in  the  various  classes. 
There  were  some  three  hundred  Merinos  at  the  exhibi- 
tion. The  judges  of  the  exhil)ition  were  men  who 
knew  nothing  about  the  owners  of  the  sheep,  except 
so  far  as  they  were  obliged  to  know.  They  were  ol)liged 
to  know  that  there  was  only  one  lot  of  sheep  sent 
over  from  the  United  States,  and  so  tar  as  they  had  to 
know  they  knew  of  the  owner ;  but  when  those  sheej) 
passed  under  the  inspection  and  study  of  the  judges  it  seemed 
to  me  that  they  were  unprejudiced.  They  were  called 
"Vermont  Merinos,"  liut  I  venture  to  say  that  there  were 
not  fifty  men  on  those  grounds,  which  sometimes  contained 


45 

one  hundred  thousand  peo})le,  who  knew  where  Vermont 
was.  They  had  an  idea  that  it  was  somewhere  over  here  in 
this  western  hemisphere,  but  where  they  did  not  know. 
The  judges  went  around  and  made  their  decisions,  and  when 
they  came  to  compare  notes  they  gave  those  Vermont 
Merinos  two  tirst  premiums  and  one  second  premium.  The 
excitement  on  the  ground  was  intense.  Xo  hmguage  that 
I  can  command  could  depict  the  excitement  among  the  Ger- 
man and  French  breeders.  Louis  Napoleon  himself,  then 
the  Emperor  of  France,  had  on  exhil)ition  right  by  the 
side  of  those  Vermont  pens,  in  a  highly  decorated  pen 
built  by  himself,  sheep  competing  with  those  Vermont 
sheep ;  and  there  were  distinguished  lireeders  from  various 
countries  of  Europe,  and  some  from  South  America.  The 
decision  was,  of  course,  very  acceptable  to  the  American 
commissioners.  Governor  Wright  came  to  me  and  said  : 
' '  A  great  victory  has  been  won  for  our  country ;  it 
will  result  in  a  change  of  the  current  of  trade  in  stock 
Merinos.  Our  people  have  heretofore  sent  to  Germany 
for  their  stock  sheep,  but  now  they  will  send  to  Vermont, 
—  the  American  people  will  tind  their  stock  sheep  at  home." 
And  they  did. 

But  I  must  tell  3'Ou  a  little  more  al)out  this  excite- 
ment. The  German  and  French  In-eeders  did  not  believe 
that  the  decision  could  be  honest ;  and  yet  the  men 
who  constituted  the  judges  were  largely  Europeans ;  they 
were  of  all  nationalities.  The  excitement,  as  I  said,  w^as 
very  great,  and  Governor  Wright  said  to  me,  "I  don't 
know  but  they  will  mol)  you  and  Mr.  Campbell,"  so  wrought 
up  were  the  breeders  who  were  exhiliiting  on  the  grounds. 
The}^  did  not  Ijelieve  that  anything  good  could  come  out  of 
America.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  there  w^as  one  test  which 
could  be  ap})lied.  These  sheep  were  not  sheared.  One 
of  the  tirst  prizes  which  was  awarded  to  us  was  upon 
the  weight  of  fleece  in  comparison  with  the  weight  of 
body.  That  could  be  tested,  and  I  oflered  100  thalers, 
which  is  $70,  for  the  sheep  that  would  shear  the  heaviest 
fleece  for  the  weight  of  body  in  the  class  of  Merinos,  the 
sheep  to  be  sheared  and  the  fleece  to  he  weighed  in  the 
presence   of  a  new  jury  appointed  by  the  German   league 


46 

and  in  the  presence  of  the  Avhole  pul^lic.  I  had  that  notice 
printed  in  French,  in  (lernian  and  in  English,  and  put  up 
on  every  pen  on  the  great  exhil)ition  grounds,  and 
three  days  were  given  for  the  entries.  When  the  third 
day  had  expired  no  entries  had  been  made  except  l)y 
(reorge  Campliell  of  the  United  States  of  America.  Then 
the  German  press  turned  round  and  said,  "The  Ameri- 
can gentlemen  have  vindicated  their  integrity,  and  the  ex- 
hiliitors  and  l)reeders  of  the  European  sheep  on  exhibition 
here  have  not  dared  to  enter."  After  the  exhibition  Mr. 
( 'ampbell  came  home,  and  (Governor  Smith  of  Vermont  in  his 
next  message  said  that  the  result  had  been  worth  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  to  the  State  of  A^ermont ;  and  he  told  me 
afterwards  that  he  might  just  as  well  have  put  in  his  mes- 
sage that  it  was  worth  a  million  of  dollars  to  the  State  of 
Vermont.  Vermont  sent  sheep  to  Australia,  to  Texas 
and  all  over  the  United  States,  where  the  leading  breeders 
had  1)een  in  the  habit  of  sending  to  Germany ;  and  the 
whole  trade  in  stock  Merinos  was  changed  from  that  great 
entrepot  of  Spanish  Merinos,  Germany,  to  the  United  States. 

Secretaiy  Sessions.  I  do  not  believe  that  this  discussion 
can  be  fitly  closed  without  a  leaf  from  your  own  experience, 
Mr.  Chairman.  I  l)elieve  you  have  the  largest  flock  of  sheep 
of  any  man  in  jNIassachusetts,  and  I  am  sure  the  audience 
would  all  like  to  hear  from  you. 

The  Chairman.  Well,  gentlemen,  I  should  l)e  very  glad 
to  give  you  the  result  of  my  experience,  but  1  think  most  of 
you  have  heard  the  oft-told  tale.  I  should  corroborate  a 
good  deal  that  Mr.  Avery  has  said.  One  question  that  was 
asked  was  about  ventilation.  The  principal  rules  of  success- 
ful sheep  husbandry  are,  that  the  sheep  must  be  kept  cool 
and  dry,  and  have  enough  to  eat.  That  is  the  whole  secret 
of  sheep  husbandry.  "And  running  water"  is  suggested 
by  the  essayist,  which  goes  without  saying.  On  that  sub- 
ject of  water,  I  think  few  people  will  believe  the  amount  of 
water  that  a  hundred-pound  ewe  with  a  lanil)  by  her  side  will 
drink.  1  unfortunately  was  dependent  for  water  for  a  flock 
of  some  three  or  four  hundred  ewes  on  a  windmill ;  the  wind 
didn't  blow  for  five  or  six  days,  the  thermometer  went  down 
below  zero,  and  it  was  a  verv  difficult  job  to  haul  water  for 


47 

those  sheep.  I  had  one  or  two  ewes  with  laml)s  by  their 
side  in  a  small  pen,  and  I  found  that,  on  the  average,  they 
would  drink  between  five  and  six  quarts  of  water  a  day. 

With  regard  to  keeping  mutton  sheep,  there  has  always 
been  an  idea,  I  think,  in  this  part  of  the  country,  that  it  was 
only  the  Merino  that  would  stand  running  in  large  flocks, 
and  when  I  first  Ijegan  I  was  told  that  I  could  not  keep 
more  than  twenty  or  thirty  together;  but  I  gradually 
increased  until  I  have  kept  a  flock  as  large  as  four  hundred 
together  in  a  summer  pasture,  feeding  them  grain.  To  top- 
dress  my  pasture  and  kill  the  undergrowth,  I  kept  the  pas- 
ture overstocked.  I  have  kept  them  from  early  in  May  until 
October  on  the  same  feeding  ground,  the  same  flock  together, 
and  ^vith  no  more  disease  than  you  would  naturally'  expect 
from  hurdling  as  I  do  at  night.  I  have  adopted  that  plan 
with  pastures  which  were  becoming  run  out,  grown  up  to 
bushes  and  covered  with  moss.  I  hurdle  my  sheep  at  night 
for  two  reasons.  One  is  to  top-dress  the  part  of  the  pasture 
Avhich  needs  it  most,  and,  secondly,  as  furnishing  protection 
against  dogs.     I  never  have  had  a  dog  jump  over  a  hurdle. 

Question.     AVhat  do  you  build  your  hurdle  with? 

The  Chairmax.  Merely  take  an  eight-foot  section  of  an 
ordinary  })icket  fence,  and  two  inches  from  the  end  of  the 
two-by-three  stick  to  which  your  pickets  are  nailed  bore  a 
hole,  then  put  your  sections  together  like  an  old  Virginia 
rail  fence,  and  where  the  holes  come  aljove  one  another  put 
in  a  piece  of  l)ent  iron  or  a  five-inch  spike,  and  your  fence  is 
very  strong  and  very  easily  moved. 

Mr.  Avery  also  said  that  sheep  needed  constant  care,  and 
they  do.  The  la])or  is  very  light.  There  is  very  little  hard 
labor  in  looking  after  sheep  ;  but  it  is  that  very  looking  after, 
the  master's  eye,  that  covers  what  is  called  generally  "  good 
luck."  There  is  no  such  thing  as  good  luck.  It  is  good  care  ; 
and  in  no  l)ranch  of  farming  that  I  know  of  does  good 
care  go  further  than  in  looking  after  a  flock  of  sheej).  One 
trouble  that  1  have  had  in  hurdling  as  closely  as  1  do,  three 
or  four  hundred  in  a  small  hurdle,  is  that  they  get  very  foul 
in  the  feet,  and  are  apt  to  get  foot-rot.  The  master's  eye, 
if  he  exercises  good  care,  sees  when  they  are  let  out  of  the 
hurdles  in  the  morning  that  there  is  a  sheep  or  lamb  affected 


48 

in  that  way,  and  when  they  are  hurdled  again  at  niulit  that 
!^heep  or  lamb  must  be  removed,  and  the  disease  not  allowed 
to  get  into  the  contagious  state.  In  that  way  it  can  be 
checked  very  easily. 

Question.     How? 

The  Chair.max.  There  are  various  prescri})tions  in  the 
books.  Our  former  secretary's  sheep  dip  is  lirst-rate  for 
foot-rot.  If  too  strong  it  will  take  the  skin  off  of  a  man's 
arm,  but  if  it  is  put  on  of  the  })roper  strength  it  will  cure 
the  foot-rot.  Then  there  is  the  prescription  of  verdigris 
and  carbolic  soap  in  the  old  l)()oks. 

I  should  disagree  with  ]\Ir.  Avery,  if  he  will  })ardon  me, 
with  regard  to  the  expense  of  keeping  sheep.  1  think  he 
has  got  it  too  high,  particularly  in  the  item  of  hay ;  because 
I  have  found  by  actual  experience  that  the  highest-priced 
hay,  that  is,  the  best  quality  of  hay,  is  not  so  eagerly  sought 
after  l)y  sheej)  as  a  poorer  (|uality.  I  have  tried  that  experi- 
ment by  using  a  stack  of  very  poor  meadow  hay,  so  ])0()r 
it  was  hardly  worth  putting  in  the  barn.  I  found  that  when 
my  sheep  had  l)ecome  used  to  it,  say  after  feeding  it  two  or 
three  days,  they  would  leave  early-cut  rowen  and  hunt  u}) 
those  old  l)rakes.  Of  course,  to  keep  them  in  condition  and 
to  keep  a  flow  of  milk  for  the  laml)s,  that  feed  nuist  be  sup- 
plemented with  a  grain  ration.  And  another  thing  that 
reduces  the  expense  of  keeping  a  sheep  for  tiie  whole  season 
is,  that,  where  ten  years  ago  it  used  to  take  about  three 
months,  more  or  less,  to  get  a  laml)  ready  for  market,  no^v, 
by  using  a  sire  of  one  of  the  im])roved  Down  breeds,  with  a 
good  grade  ewe,  well  fed,  you  can  as  often  market  a  lamb 
under  fifty  days  as  we  used  to  do  it  in  a  hundred  days. 

Mr.  Grinxell.  What  age  or  size  lamb  do  you  find  the 
most  marketalde  ? 

The  Chairman.  Our  local  market  in  Boston  is  not  active 
for  lambs  until  into  February.  There  may  be  occasionally 
one  asked  for  1>efore  that,  but  as  an  ordinary  rule  the  market 
for  lambs  does  not  open  until  into  Fel)ruaiy,  and  at  that 
time  laml)s  will  ))e  taken  weighing  from  twent\'-five  to  twenty- 
eight  ])ounds,  which,  bred  from  im})roved  sires  on  good 
grade  ewes,  ought  to  be  i)ut  into  the  market  at  six  Aveeks' 
old. 


49 

S.  E.  Stone.  I  would  like  to  ask  one  question  in  regard 
to  pasturing  sheep.  Is  it  desirable  or  proper  to  keep  sheep 
continually  on  the  same  pasture  ? 

The  Chairman.  They  do  better  to  change.  I  merely 
stated  that  as  an  exaggerated  system.  I  have  tried  that, 
and  tested  it  very  carefully.  I  propose  to  cut  my  pastures 
up  into  five  or  six,  and  let  the  sheep  run  ten  days  in  one  and 
ten  days  in  another. 

Question.  How  many  sheep  can  you  feed  on  one  acre, 
as  compared  with  one  cow? 

The  Chairman.     From  eight  to  ten. 

Hon.  J.  E.  Russell.  You  might  have  stated  that  the 
buyers  in  Boston  want  lighter  lambs  than  they  used  to. 
They  will  buy  lambs  weighing  from  twenty-two  to  twenty- 
five  pounds,  when  they  used  to  insist  upon  having  a  lamb 
weigh  thirty  or  thirty-five  pounds. 

The  Chairman.  When  I  began  it  took  me  from  seventy 
to  eighty  days  to  get  lambs  that  would  dress  twenty-five 
pounds.     I  can  now  do  it  easily  in  forty  days. 


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